Moments in the Day of
by Elmoo
Summary: Set after ch. 295, Naruto feels guilty about using Kyuubi and leaves the village. In an unknown village he meets someone interesting . Pairings: you have to read it. All reviews are welcome.
1. Chapter 1: Leaving

Author's notes: Any original Naruto characters or Naruto places, events or objects belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

This is set after Ch. 295. Each chapter contains a story of Naruto and Kakashi and what happens to them at the same day. Naruto leaves Konoha because he feels it is dangerous to keep Kyuubi near the village.

It was a dreary rainy night. A blonde spiky young boy clad only in a black shirt and white shorts awakes to find himself in a hospital bed. He tries to remember what happened, but all he could remember was tapping into the destructive powers of the Kyuubi, while fighting with Orochimaru. Getting himself out of bed, Naruto adjusts his eyes to the dark and makes his way to the glimmering light of the slightly opened door. He walks through the hallways of the hospital, wincing in pain with each step. Only now can he visibly see the bandages wrapped around his limbs and he lifts his shirt to see his torso wrapped up as well. After wandering around aimlessly, he stops as he reaches the open doors of room 6. There, lying unconsciously in bed was Sakura and her left arm bound in a cast.

"Naruto-kun?"

Naruto turns around to find the Godaime's attendant in the hall looking with concern. He enters Sakura's room and Shizune follows from behind.

"Did I do this?" The boy asks.

Placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder Shizune replies, "No. Orochimaru did this. If it wasn't for him—"

"Nee-chan." Naruto interrupts. "I chose to use Kyuubi and I lost control."

"You and your group would've died if you didn't. Orochimaru is a very powerful ninja. Even a whole village can have a lot of trouble defeating him."

"D-did, Captain Yamato tell you what happened?" Naruto gloomily questions.

"Yes"

"Is he hurt?"

Shizune kindly replies, "He's fine. All he has is a slightly burnt arm."

Naruto approaches Sakura and sadly observes her steady breathing.

"I can't be a Hokage." Shizune was about to respond before being cut off by Naruto. "A Hokage is respected because he's the strongest and that strength is used to protect the village." Naruto places a hand on Sakura arm. "I'm a threat to this village."

"Naruto-kun that's not true," the attendant exclaims.

Then they were silent. Naruto removes his hand from Sakura's arm and turns to go back to his room. Shizune looks on with deep concern before leaving the room herself.

At almost 3 am, Naruto sneaks out of the hospital, which wasn't hard to do since there were hardly any people, and heads to his apartment. It his been 3 hours since his encounter with Shizune in Sakura's room. A few minutes later he reaches his home and begins packing his clothes and plenty of ramen into his bag pack. Making sure he has everything he needs, Naruto flees into the rainy night and departs from the village that has been his home.

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Kakashi leans against the wall of the Hokage's office, watching the white haired frog hermit--Jiraiya, the fifth Hokage—Tsunade, and Shizune, listen to Yamato's report.

"After Naruto was stabbed by Orochimaru's sword, he quickly recovered and grabbed Orochimaru with his hand of chakra. He was squeezing the life out him but that snake was able to break off into smaller snakes and he retreated with Kabuto. Although Orochimaru escaped, he was clearly injured. He was massively burned—not only by the chakra hand but also by some black ball. When I tried to control the jinchuriki, he was forming another ball and tried to hit me with it. I was almost able to dodge it but it grazed my arm." Yamato shows them the long burn mark on his arm.

"Looks like it boiled your skin," Kakashi observed.

Yamato continues, "As soon as that black ball hit the ground, it created a powerful explosion that just blew everyone back."

"What about Sasuke?" Jiraiya inquires.

"He was not present. It was all a bluff to get Naruto riled up." Yamato takes a deep breath. "If it wasn't for Sakura helping, I wouldn't have been able to control the boy."

"Did Sai give you an insight for trying to kill Naruto," Kakashi ponders.

"Just that he was a threat."

"I'm betting Danzou told him that and gave him the order," Tsunade explains.

"He left right after Naruto got back to normal," Yamato adds.

"In any case, it's almost midnight. We'll continue this conversation tomorrow afternoon, but for now I want you to go with Shizune to treat that wound of yours and get some rest," the Hokage orders.

Shizune and Yamato bow, then they leave for the hospital.

"How long did it take for Naruto to recover from when you experienced the 4th tail?" Kakashi asks.

"He woke up in a few hours but his body was still…" Jiraiya cringes at the memory. "His body took at least a week to recover from the wounds and bruises it sustained from Kyuubi."

"I think I'll go see him now-"

"Kakashi. Wait till' morning. Let him rest for now," Tsunade states.

"Yeah, he's probably still asleep," agrees Jiraiya.


	2. Chapter 2: Who?

Naruto tries to ignore the pain as he got further away form Konoha. He stops by a stream to rest for a moment and he removes the bandages to wash his wounds in the water. The cold night air blended perfectly with the cool water to numb the pain in his limbs. He continues to move on and searches for a place where he can rest rather than risk being caught in the forest. He sees a twinkling light from afar and heads towards it. After traveling for more than half the day, Naruto comes upon a small secluded and peaceful looking town. As he approaches the area, a tagged kunai lands in front of him.

"What the…"

A figure in a hooded black cloak lands in front of him in a fighting stance. Naruto instinctively kage bunshins and encircles the figure. Screaming, the clones attack on all sides but the figure completely disappears and the clones end up hitting each other. Naruto turns around and finds the figure picking up the kunai. The figure puts the kunai back in his pouch and continues to face Naruto.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Who wants to know?"

Naruto watches the man remove his hood that shadows his face and finds himself staring at an adult man who resembles Yondaime.

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Kakashi sits beside Sakura's bed while reading his "Icha, Icha, Paradise" novel.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura mumbles as she wakes up.

The jounin puts his book down and smiles at his student.

"Yo, you're finally awake!"

Sakura smiles back and looks around.

"Sensei, how's Naruto?"

Kakashi's face falls and replies, "I don't know."

"You haven't seen him yet?"

"I tried to see him."

"But…"

"He's not there-"

"What! Was he taken? Was he attacked?" Sakura jolts up from the bed as she says this.

"No." Kakashi sadly answers. "He left."

Feeling a sense of déjá vu, Sakura shakes her head and tries to get a hold of her emotions.

"That's not true! Naruto wouldn't leave!" Cries the pink haired girl.

"Shizune was the last to see him. They were both in this room, and he blamed himself for what happened. We're guessing he left because he feels that he's dangerous—"

"But he's not! We have to search for him!"

Kakashi runs his fingers through his hair. "I've sent my dogs to look for him, but the rain washed away his scent. Godaime-sama has sent Jiraiya-sama to look for him."

"Can't—can't we help look too?"

"Tsunade-sama needs us for other missions. Besides, Jiraiya is best at tracking down people."

After and awkward silence, Sakura mutters, "This feels familiar huh?"

"Get some rest Sakura."

After Kakashi leaves the hospital, he grabs some dango for lunch but is soon disturbed by the entrance of his eternal rival.

"KAKASHI! What is this I hear about another one of your student running away? Really now, that's very irresponsible of you."

"I'm not in the mood for you Gai." Kakashi asserts with irritation.

While making ridiculous gestures, Gai expreses his interest to help, "Well in any case I want to help!" He does his nice guy pose.

"Thanks for the offer but the Hokage has sent Jiraiya-sama for the job."

As soon as he says this Asuma, Kurenai, and Anko enter the shop and Kakashi doesn't feel like hearing anymore about Naruto's disappearance. So, he makes a quick exit while avoiding eye contact with anyone.

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"Yondaime?" Naruto murmurs.

"No." The man simply states while smoothing his medium cut, cropped, and well groomed blonde hair. "He had tiny ears and long spiky hair," nonchalance in his voice. "Just like you."

"I don't have small ears!" Naruto points out.

"I'm right about the hair."

Naruto continues to stare at the 4th's near doppelganger.

"Aren't you going to ask me who I am?" Naruto remains quiet.

With a sigh the man introduces himself, "Very well, I am Denkou Ryo."

"Denkou Ryo?"

"You're probably wondering why I attacked you." Ryo sees Naruto's face become serious. "Don't worry. I promise that I will not harm you. I just wanted to get an idea of what you're like. They say that a ninja's fighting style reflects their personality. Judging from your explosiveness, you are loud, energetic, and very eager. You probably don't get missions that require stealth and a lot of patience."

"Uh…" was all a dumbstruck Naruto can say.

"That's enough talk, why don't we head down to the town andI'll buy you dinner."

"REALLY! YAY!" Naruto jumps up with joy. As soon as he lands he falls down in pain.

"Maybe we should get you checked up first." Ryo helps Naruto to his feet.

"I'm fine. Just need something to eat." Naruto's stomach growls as he thinks of food. Ryo has just earned his trust by buying him dinner.

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"Any news from Jiraiya-sama?" Kakashi eagerly asks.

Taking a deep breath, Tsunade briefly looks at Kakashi in the eye before gazing down her desk, "No."

Seeing Kakashi disappointed, Tsunade adds, "It's only been a day. Jiraiya will find him. That's all what we could hope for right now."

Another slight silence follows before Tsunade speaks again. "On a different matter, I'm assigning you a covert mission."

"Covert mission?"

"You and another ninja will travel to the Stone village. Once you're there I need you guys to steal 3 grey documents. Here are a list of the 3 buildings that are holding each files."

"What's in the files?" Kakashi asks as he reads through the list.

"We believe that they contain something about Orochimaru's plans. As you can tell, these buildings are owned by the feudal lord Tetsu Oriwa. He's buried himself in great debts of money and impossible favours. He's recently been meeting with the damned snake and has most likely made a deal with him. Those grey files belong to Orochimaru and Tetsu is hiding them for him. Our sources in the Earth country have been keeping a close eye on him."

A knock on the door interrupts them. Shizune enters with a dozen files in her arms and places them on the Hokage's desk.

"More Work?" Tsunade exclaims.

"These are the one's from yesterday." Tsunade gives Shizune a puzzled look. "The ones you decided to put off for today."

"Fine. Kakashi, you are dismissed. But before you go, I need to emphasize that Konoha must have no trace with this theft. **No one** from Konoha was involved."

"I understand." Kakashi exits the office.

Kakashi was about to head home and prepare for the mission.

"Kakashi!" The grey-haired jounin turns around and finds a red-eyed woman leaning against the wall—it kind of reminded him of himself.

"Kurenai."

"I guess you're coming with me to Stone village."

"We leave in the morning." Kakashi does a thinking pose. "Let's say 7."

"Yeah. It's a 3 day trip, so please don't be late." Kurenai pleads.

Kakashi smirks behind his mask before lazily saying, "Sure thing."


	3. Chapter 3: Surprises

Kakashi wears a headband without the Leaf symbol. He arrives at the village gate at 7:50 in the morning and is expecting to see an angry Kurenai. Instead there was no one waiting for him.

"Odd," Kakashi thinks.

His strong sense of smell picks up her faint scent and finds it getting stronger as he moves further from the village. He arrives at a small town and enters an inn, where he is greeted by an old woman at the reception desk.

"Good morning sir!"

"Good morning. Was there a lady with long black hair, red eyes—"

"Oh yes! She checked in more than ahalf hour ago. She said a one eyed, grey haired idiot would be showing up later."

"Idiot?" Kakashi ponders.

"She's in room 12."

Kakashi opens door #12 and quickly scans the room for Kurenai. Sensing no one within the vicinity, he decides to head to the bathroom for a quick bath.

"She must be wandering in the town," Kakashi assumes.

After opening the door to the bathroom, Kakashi witnesses Kurenai getting out of the bathtub.

"KAKASHI!" She quickly grabs the towel and covers herself.

Kakashi continues to stare and isn't moving at all.

"KAKASHI!" Kurenai bellows.

"Hmm?" Kakashi continues gazing at the towel clad kunoichi.

Finally, Kurenai pushes him out of the bathroom and slams the door shut.

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At a restaurant, Naruto enjoys his second bowl of ramen and attempts to fill his belly with more.

"Any questions you have, I will answer." Ryo waits for Naruto to wolf down his 2nd bowl and requests for a 3rd one.

"First of all, who are you?" Naruto asks with a mouthful of noodles.

"Ok…you know my name, I'm currently living in this village—Seishuku—"

"Seishuku?"

"It's a secluded village and I won't be surprised if you're unfamiliar with it. Not a lot of people know about this place—it's not even on the map."

"Why did I find it?" Naruto questions.

"Because I wanted you to find it." Naruto swallows some more noodles and looked even more confused. "You see Naruto, you and I are connected. We are connected through Denkou Kiiro."

"Denkou Kiiro? Never heard of him."

"Really. Maybe you know him better as Konoha's Yondaime."

Naruto chokes on his food and begins pounding his chest.

"As you can see from the strong resemblance, I am Yondaime's brother. We both were born in the hidden village of Nimbus in Lightning country. Our parents moved us into this village when mother and father wanted to give up the shinobi life. When niisan turned 10, he wanted to be a ninja. Father was a very kind man and did exactly what we asked for. So, he took Kiiro to Konoha to fulfill his dream and to become the best ninja. Niisan was 11 years older than me and returned here when I was born. As we grew, he would teach me some jutsus and I aspired to become like him. But at the same time I wanted to be a shinobi my own way, so I trained in Lightning country."

"How am I connected in all of this?" Naruto inquires.

"Niisan was married but the marriage was a secret. As a Hokage, he became very protective about his personal life and tried his absolute best to keep it out of the public. 10 months after the war ended with the Rock village, news of Kyuubi's arrival came. Everyone was familiar with demon's story and Niisan knew his fate. He had me take his pregnant wife to a place just outside of Konoha for protection. His wife at the time was very ill and the stress she was experiencing was making her health worse. She made niisan promise to protect the baby at all cost. I was there when she gave birth and she died shortly after the child came out. She survived long enough to name the baby." Ryo smiles at Naruto. "She named him Naruto."

Naruto swallows hard the information he has just received. His heart was pounding really hard and fast. He feels his stomach doing flips and his breath becoming faster and shorter. Closing his eyes, Naruto tries to get his emotions in order. He feels angry. He feels sad. And maybe a little relieved? He's not so sure.

With a heavy heart, Naruto asks, "What was her name?"

"Uzumaki Akaiini."

Naruto has a sad and pensieve look.

"Naruto, I think I've given you too much in one day. You can stay in my home and ask me more questions in the morning."

Naruto welcomes this idea. He can't think clearly right now. What he needs is to just lie down, close his eyes, and hope that everything just will be what—okay? He's not really sure what he wants to happen. What does he want to happen now? What should happen now? Naruto just wants to sleep. Yeah, sleep should do him good and hopefully these feelings will fix themselves in the morning.

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The unmasked Kakashi flutters his eye open and sits up on the bed. He looks out the window and it's still dark outside. Moving towards his bag pack, he takes out a fresh set of clothes and dons his famous mask that covers his handsome face. A smile forms on his lips as he thinks back to yesterday.

_A towel clad Kurenai pushes Kakashi out of the washroom and slams the door. He knows he should move away form the door but his feet were stuck to the floor. A few minutes later, the door opens and a fully clothed Kurenai is surprised to find the jounin still standing on the same spot. She opens her mouth to say something but changes her mind and walks past him, while giving him the evil eye._

"_So…" Kakashi starts._

"_You were late." Kurenai was trying to divert the conversation away from what just happened._

"_Sorry about—"_

"_I expected that you'd be at least about an hour late," Kurenai interjects._

"_Oh, is that why you left the bathroom door unlocked?" Kakashi receives a glare from Kurenai, which really doesn't affect him._

_Kakashi enters the bathroom but not before irritating Kurenai any further, "If you want payback, I'll leave the door unlocked too." Kakashi closes the door but not before seeing the kunoichi red with anger and her fist balled up—ready for a dangerous blow._

The sun was just beginning to rise when Kakashi decides to buy some breakfast. He finds a food shop that just opened and is greeted by a young man. He goes back to his room at the inn and finds Kurenai awake and ready. He shows her the bag of food and they settle down at the coffee table, eating breakfast. Kakashi finishes quickly and pulls out his favourite novel.

"I don't know why you read that stuff," Kurenai utters.

Without looking up from his book Kakahi replies, "Because reading is good for the mind."

Kurenai scoffs at his statement and mutters "idiot." From the corner of his eye, Kakashi steals a glance from Kurenai.

"Stop it," Kurenai's clearly annoyed from his glances.

"Stop what?"

"Looking at me and reading that book. It feels like you're picturing me in that book of yours."

"Is that so bad?" Kakashi teases.

"Yes!" Kurenai becoming more annoyed. "Aaaah! Why are you so…so damn—" Kurenai makes a gesture that shows she wants to squeeze Kakashi's neck until his head pops.

Acting perfectly cool, Kakashi continues to read.

"Anyways, we should get going. We have a long travel ahead of us." He closes his book and makes his way to the door.

Kurenai finishes her breakfast and imagines kicking Kakashi's head as she follows him out.

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Naruto wakes up (although it feels like he didn't sleep at all) as the sun rises.

"Morning!" Ryo pops in and checks Naruto's injuries. "Doesn't seem too serious.You're healing nicely." He wraps new bandages on Naruto's wounds and leads him to the kitchen.

Naruto's tired eyes land on the meals prepared for him but can't muster the appetite to appreciate it. After running several questions in his head, he finally decides on one.

"You're my uncle right?" Naruto receives a nod. "Why didn't you come for me?"

Thinking and taking a deep breath Ryo answers, "Before niisan left to face Kyuubi, he made me promise to make you a great ninja. Konoha was the best place to learn and that when you've learned all you can from there, I would teach you a jutsu when you're mature and ready. This was Sandaime and Kiiro's arrangements and I agreed to it. Plus, the only time I ever set foot in Konoha was when the Kyuubi attacked. After niisan died, I couldn't make myself go back there. It's too hard for me."

"What makes you think I'm ready to learn from you?"

"Why would a 15 year old boy leave Konoha on his own?"

"Because I'm a threat."

"Exactly. Thinking of others and fighting to protect those who are important to you is a trait of a strong ninja. Niisan loved your village. He protected Konoha with everything he had and is now eternally remembered as one of the most powerful ninja to have ever existed. A shinobi's strength doesn't come from the number of jutsus he knows. Power isn't necessarily about defeating an enemy to show who's the strongest. Niisan knew many jutsus, but he measured his strength by how well he protected the people." Ryo feels saddened as he remembers his brother. "Anyways, you should eat up.You'll heal faster, then I can teach you a jutsu."

Ryo looks at Naruto, who's now eating everything he gets a hand on.

"Alright! I'm gonna learn new jutsus!" Naruto throws his hands up. "AAAH! That hurts, " he screams.

Ryo covers his ears from the screaming,. "Geez, you're loud. Must've gotten it from your mother." He says the last part inaudibly. "We're not doing anyting until you're fully healed. We're also gonna train hard with exercising your own chakra to make you less reliant on Kyuubi. I'm guessing that by now the seal is weakening."

"Can't you fix it?"

"No. I don't know how. I'm not good with seals. But I'm excellent when it comes to using chakra efficiently. That way your chakra lasts longer and you can do more powerful jutsus as often as you want."

"Yay! I'm gonna be stronger and be closer to becoming Hok..." Naruto trails off. He's no longer sure of his dream. It was just a habit of his--thinking about being a Hokage.

Ryo can see the enthusiasm in Naruto dwindling, but decides not to think too much about it.

"Naruto, I have somewhere to be but I'll be back tonight. You can roam around the village if you want. Take some of those biscuits behind you when you go outside and give them to Shiroi and Howaito or else they'll attack you. Okay, I'm off."

"Wait!" But Ryo's gone in a flash.

Naruto changes into his gear and leaves the house. Outside a pair of snow colored foxes viciously growl at him. Naruto takes out some biscuits in his pocket and offers it to the beasts. Their attitudes immediately change as they eat the treats and become more playful towards the blonde boy.

"You guys aren't scary at all!" He bends down to pat them. "You guys wanna come with me to the village?"

The older and bigger fox yawns and lies down on her belly. The younger and smaller fox is more jovial and jumps for joy as he follows Naruto into the village.

"You're alright." Naruto looks at the white fox beside him. "You're waaaay cuter than Akamaru."

Naruto once again is reminded of his broken dream with the thought of anything related to his village.


	4. Chapter 4: Nature

It was just about sunset when Kakashi and Kurenai reach the gates of hidden village of stones, earlier than expected—thanks to the impatience of Kurenai and her desire to finish the mission quickly. They take a break just outside the village and prepare a strategy. Kurenai removes her head protector and takes out a map from her bag pack. With the map, she marks their targets.

"The grey documents are on the top floor office of each building. In the offices we have to find the vaults where the files are hidden. Tetsu must have his buildings heavily guarded—"

"Crooked feudal lords usually hire cheap goons as guards and they're not a problem although,I'm betting there will be highly skilled ninjas on the top floor."

"You'd think Tetsu would be scared to screw with Orochimaru by hiring cheap help. So how do you want to do this?" Kurenai asks with concern.

"We hit all 3 buildings tonight—get it done soon, instead of hitting one every night. That would arouse suspicion too quickly. We leave at exactly midnight when the night's at its darkest. Also, I'm hoping that we could be done quickly and leave way before sunrise—before the day starts. Being a genjutsu expert, you could quickly get us to the top office without alerting the goons and hopefully the ninjas too. But I don't think the ninjas can be easily avoided."

Later that night, Kakashi and Kurenai infiltrate their target base. As Kakashi predicted getting past the main entrance was easy but getting through the top office door was a bit more challenging. The ninjas guarding the office doors were chuunin level but they were knocked unconscious with some ease. It took them some time to find the vault (especially in the dark), which was located under the floorboards of the desk. After using a weak explosive tag to pry the vault open, Kurenai grabs the grey document and puts it in her bag. They do the exact same thing with the next two buildings.

At the third building, Kurenai was putting the last file away, when a huge hand grabs her neck and smashes her through the door.

"Kurenai!" Kakashi attempts to get to her but is stopped by the hulking silhouette.

"Looks like I caught a pair of thieves." The large man turns on the light and punches Kakashi in the face. Kakashi hits the wall and turns into a puff of smoke. "Kage Bunshin? We have ninja thieves."

With the lights on, Kakashi sees the bulked figure before him. The man's arms were huge and they were covered with a stone armor. The stone man charges toward Kakashi who jumps over the stone man and kicks him in the head. Wincing in pain, the stone man catches Kakashi's leg and hurls him on the ceiling. Just as Kakashi's about to be punched in the face, a kunai lands in the stone man's leg. Growling, the stone man turns around and Kakshi notices the explosive tag on the kunai and runs toward Kurenai and they both jump out of the window as the explosion erupts. Kakashi hears Kurenai groan as they land on the ground. They continue to run until they are outside a 6 mile radius from the village.

"You okay?" A breathless Kakashi asks as he sees her hand being stained by blood as she holds her neck.

"I'm fine."

Kakashi removes his headband and bundles it up. He uses his headband to apply pressure on Kurenai's gash to stop the bleeding.

"Here, hold this." Kurenai holds the headband against her wound.

Kakashi opens his bag and takes out a bottle of water, a bandage, and a piece of cloth. He also takes out his head protector (with the leaf symbol) and wears it in his loose usual style—covering his sharingan eye. Kurenai is ordered to remove her hand as Kakashi proceeds to clean and patch the injury.

"That should do it for now. Once we get back to the village we'll have the hospital clean it more thoroughly."

"Thank you, Kakashi," Kurenai says it with heartfelt sincerity and gratitude.

"No problem. You know…I could've use the bandages around your body, but that would make you naked right?" Kakashi jokes.

Kurenai walks over to him and smacks him on the head before walking away.

"Idiot! I do wear a shirt underneath you know!"

"You're mad that I didn't know you wore a shirt underneath?" Kakashi continues to push Kurenai's buttons and is clearly enjoying it.

"Seriously, what is wrong with you? You're a first rate serious ninja, then you transform into a perverted Idiot!" Kurenai walks off muttering in anger.

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Naruto explores the village and found everyone to be very friendly, especially the women. They were often coming up to him and saying "cute" a lot. Naruto reasons that they're saying "cute" to the white fox walking beside him. By mid-afternoon, he heads down to the forest. He sits underneath a tree and takes out his head protector from his pocket. Howaito sniffs it and looks up at Naruto.

"What should I do with this now?" Naruto asks the snow fox, who offers a grumble for an answer. "I still can't believe I just left. I left my life, my dream, and my promise."

The fox lies down beside Naruto, who found comfort in the creature's presence. Naruto returns the head protector in his pocket and runs his hand through the fox's head. He grabs the stick in front of him and throws it in anger. The white fox's quickly gets to his feet, runs after the stick and returns it in a quick flash.

"Whoa!" Naruto utters in surprise. He throws the stick again and the fox returns in a blur.

Naruto returns to his uncle's house to find him just returning from his trip.

"Naruto, how was your day?"

"What's with the fox? He's like super fast."

"Those tenka foxes are from the nimbus village. They're a very rare breed and they carry a large amount of chakra within them. The nimbus villagers used them during battle for their quickness and great power." He pauses for a second."They're usually hard to train because it's difficult to gain their trust. They're not like domestic dogs. However, Howaito seems to like you." Ryo observes.

Naruto stares at the fox and smiles at it.

"He and his mother are going to help us in training." Ryo informs Naruto.

"Really! How?" Naruto excitedly inquires.

"Just wait until you're healed."

"C'mon…just tell me…"

>

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Author's notes: Just wanted say thanks to Ibozun for pointing out that Ryo shouldn't refer to his brother as Yondaime. My bad. Once again, I welcome all criticisms, so don't be afraid to review.


	5. Chapter 5: Suffering

Just outside of the village of Seishuku, Naruto arrives on the forest area and sees his uncle with the two white foxes.

"Let's get started already!" Naruto yells.

It's been 4 days since he arrived in the village and he has fully recovered from his injuries.

"What are you going to teach me?" The eager boy asks.

"Patience, Naruto. We have to condition your body first. You're out of shape."

"NO WAY!"

"Have it your way then. Shiroi, Howaito (points to Naruto), FUKA TAMA!"

Naruto ducks and covers his head as he sees the foxes shoot out balls of electricity from their mouth.

"WAIT!" Naruto puts his hands up and one of the electric ball hits his hand.

He wriggles his hand as electricity surges through, causing him to spaz in pain. Ryo comes to him and helps him to his feet.

"How am I suppose to dodge something that fast?" Naruto asks while groaning in pain.

"You need to be able to see things very quickly before you learn this jutsu. You have to learn to react very quickly and the only way to do that is through practice. Here's what you're going to do: you are going to play hide and seek with Shiroi."

"Uncle, that sounds stupid." Naruto whines.

"You are going to keep an eye on Shiroi, and guess where she is hiding: the tree on your left, the rock in front of you, the stump beside it, or the tree on your far right. If you get it wrong, Howaito's going to start shooting fuku tama in your direction. You could dodge them if you like but he won't stop until you get hit. And, I've got to warn you these beasts can last all day long. Well, I guess that's all for now. Until you can see their movements and attacks, you won't learn the jutsu. I'll be back by sunset to pick you up."

Ryo leaves Naruto with the snowy creatures. Naruto stares at Shiroi and waits for her to do something. Shiroi barks and disappears in a blur—leaving Naruto baffled. Naruto looks at his options and goes for the rock on his right and finds it empty. As soon as he turns around, a ball of electricity heads his way.

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Kakashi makes his way to the Hokage's office and finds Sakura eavesdropping at the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Sensei!" Sakura yelps. "It—it's just that Jiraiya-sama has returned—"

Kakashi barges in the office, with Sakura following from behind, and finds Jiraiya and Tsunade in a serious conversation.

"Kakashi, could you please knock before you enter?" Tsunade' voice sounds irritated.

"I'm very sorry, but I heard that Jiraiya-sama is back in town."

"No need to get worked up Kakashi. Tsunade temporarily halted the search for Naruto."

"Why?" Kakashi asks.

"The documents that you and Kurenai obtained had Orochimaru's war strategy, but most importantly a blue print of a new lab in the hidden village of Mist. Jiraiya just returned from the Rain village and found an abandoned lab of Orochimaru." Tsunade explains.

"In the lab, I found people who died from the torture of Orochimaru's experimentations. There were two survivors, who died shortly in the hospital. Their faces were gruesomely scarred and their bodies were no longer human. Orochimaru did some very sick andcruel things to those people and we have to stop him from doing thatagain.That blue print indicated that the lab in the hidden village of Mist is new. That means that there are people in there who are being treated like guinea pigs,or that Orochimaru is living in his new hide-out."

"You want to infiltrate the lab." Kakashi concludes.

"What about Naruto?" Sakura brings up.

"Jiraiya will infiltrate Orochimaru's lab. Kakashi, Asuma, and Anko will go with him. If Orochimaru is present in that lab, I want at least one sannin on this mission. Sakura, you will continue searching for Naruto along with team 8." Tsunade watches Sakura's happy expression. "But, if we don't find him soon, we have to stop looking. We have other things that we should be concerned about."

"Then we'll find him." Sakura states.

Jiraiya smiles at the pink haired girl, "I'll give you a list of the places I've visited in my search."

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The sun is almost setting and Naruto's lying on the ground breathless. He's getting better at dodging Howaito's attacks but he still hasn't made any progress on following Shiroi's movements. Attempting to do the exercise again, Naruto falls on the ground and clenches his stomach.

"This is too hard." He says to himself. "I've even tried Kage Bunshin to have extra eyes, but she's still to fast for me to see."

Naruto sees footsteps approaching his way.

"You ready to call it a day?" Ryo asks.

"It's impossible to follow Shiroi."

"You think so?"

Ryo nods at Shiroi, who disappears in a flash.

"Did you see her go behind the rock?"

Naruto sees Shiroi pops up from behind the rock. Naruto looks up at his uncle in amazement.

"Try to squint your eyes and follow the white blur. That'll help you in tracking her." The uncle advises as he lifts Naruto on his back. "You're chakra level's too low to continue training."

"No, I'm fine." Naruto whines.

"You can barely walk. You'll have plenty of time tomorrow."

"Can't you just tell me about the jutsu and why I have to do this."

Ryo laughs and says, "No."


	6. Chapter 6: Home

It has been almost 18 months since Naruto left Konoha. His spiky blonde hair is almost touching his chin and he's grown a couple more inches. No longer bearing the fox whiskers on his face, Naruto grew a thin mustache and nice, smooth fuzz on his chin. He's changed his clothes to complement Ryo's style. He now wears a long dark blue cloak, white shirt, and black pants. He usually fully zips his cloak in order to hide himself in the dark. Howaito—the snow colored fox—usually travels by his side.

Landing on a thick tree branch, Naruto looks over the horizon where the noon sun is burning. Howaito lands by his side and gives a quick growl.

"You're slow today."

Howaito glares at him and barks. Naruto laughs at him but his ears perks up when he hears an explosion from afar. He puts his cloak over his head to hide his face and speeds his way to the site with the white fox beside him.

Naruto and Howaito reach the area and hide themselves behind a tree. The blonde peeks at the scene and finds a familiar pink haired kunoichi battling with 5 other jounins. Judging from their forehead protector, they're from the Mist village.

"Sakura-chan" Naruto whispers quietly.

Sakura was doing fine with the other ninjas until she got caught in a water caging technique. Naruto takes out 3 trident shaped kunais and throws them at the jounins closest to Sakura. Naruto looks at Howaito, nods, and disappears in a flash. He sees Howaito go for the other 2 jounins, while he attacks the other 3. Not fast enough for the yellow blur, Sakura becomes free of the water cage and finds her enemies on the ground. She looks behind her and finds a white fox annihilating the other Wave jounins. She returns her gaze to what's in front of her and finds a cloaked man towering over her. Naruto removes his hood but Sakura's expression doesn't change.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto tries to ease her anxiety.

Sakura squints her eyes and scans the man in front of her.

"Naruto?" Sakura's eyes go wide as she recognizes who's in front of her.

Naruto is attacked by Sakura's bear hug.

"You're alive!" cries the pink haired ninja.

Naruto is unsure about what to do. He's never been hugged by anyone especially by Sakura. So, he decides that it's best to just stand there and let Sakura hug him. All of a sudden he feels Sakura punch him in the gut with her monstrous strength, causing him to fall on the ground. Suddenly, Sakura finds a scary white fox growling at her.

"No, don't," Naruto holds his hand up and slowly gets to his feet.

The fox backs away from Sakura and goes to Naruto's side.

"You punch harder than before Sakura-chan."

"N-Naruto, where have you been!"

"Does it matter?"

"Hokage-sama made us stop searching after a year. There were even rumors that you died." Sakura holds back her tears.

"You shouldn't believe in rumors then," Naruto grins.

"Not knowing what happened to you, I started to think maybe…" Sakura lets a few tears out and hugs Naruto who hugs her back this time.

"I'm fine. I've survived." Naruto releases her.

"Why didn't you come back?" Sakura takes a step back and looks at his ruggedly handsome face.

Naruto remains silent and sees the scar on Sakura's arm that he imprinted on her when he let Kyuubi control his body.

"Naruto, you didn't hurt me. I know that you wouldn't hurt anyone. Please come home."

"I don't know Sakura-chan."

Howaito starts grumbling and Naruto bends down and playfully strokes the fox's head.

"How about we grab something to eat?" Naruto grabs Sakura's hand and leads her to Seishuku village.

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Kakashi makes his way around his house in the dark. He just came back from a mission and goes to his bedroom as quietly as possible. Standing near the bed, he takes off his clothes and slips under the covers and cuddles the sleeping woman. She stirs as he puts his arms around her waist.

"You're home late," Kurenai mumbles as she faces Kakashi.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"That's ok. I just worry sometimes." She smooths out his hair and finds a cut on the right side of his forehead.

"It's nothing. I already stopped by the hospital and they cleaned it up." Kakashi reassures her. "Let's just go to sleep."

Kurenai turns on her side and faces away from Kakashi who pulls her closer to him as they let slumber take over their bodies.

About 18 months ago…

_Jiraiya and his jounin squad have entered Orochimaru's lab in the Mist village. The team splits up—Jiraiya takes Asuma with him to the east wing, leaving Anko and Kakashi to investigate the other side. Kakashi and Anko enter a door with a white window. Inside, they find children in liquid containers. Most of them were deformed from the experiments. One had the face of a snake, and one had the skin of frog. Kakashi hears the sound of glass smashing and sees Anko frees a child from her container. The child had scars all over her. Anko looks at the child's reptilian hands and looks for a pulse in the wrist._

"_She's dead," Anko reports._

"_I'm guessing the rest are not alive anymore." Kakashi observes the rest of the experiments._

"_We should get going." Anko glumly states._

_As soon as they get out of the door, Kakashi and Anko are quickly attacked by two ninjas. They suddenly become surrounded by mists as they avoid the attacks the mist ninjas are throwing._

"_We have to do something about this," Anko yells._

_Kakashi takes out a scroll from his pocket and puts his blood on it. With his earth tracking fang no jutsu, several large vicious looking dogs are able to attack the enemies. The mist clears up and Kakashi and Anko go on the attack. The mist ninjas avoid their attacks and they counterattack by sending a wave of kunai at the Konoha jounins. Anko throws a wave of snakes that swallows each of the kunai and they then disappear in a puff of smoke. Using the smoke to his advantage, Kakashi gathers up chakra in his hand to form the Chidori. When the smoke settles he thrusts his hand into the enemy who quickly dies. Anko uses her hidden shadow snake hand and the snake bites the Mist ninja's neck, releasing venom, and paralyzing the Mist nin. Anko sticks a kunai in the ninja's throat who drops on the stone cold floor._

_The two jounins delve deeper in Orochimaru's lair and find themselves standing in front of a huge door. As Anko pushes the door, Asuma flies out of it and lands on his back. Anko helps him up and sees the new sound 4. Kakashi finds Jiraiya appear beside him._

"_Kakashi, you, Anko, and Asuma take care of the rest. I'm going after Orochimaru. I was able to disrupt him from transferring his soul into the Uchiha. He's weak now and it's best to finish him off." Jiraiya runs into the direction of Orochimaru, leaving the rest to face the sound nins._

_Tokage, the leader of the sound nins, looks at the 3 Konoha jounins and scoffs, "Although, it would only take a second to destroy you weaklings, the war would be more fun if you were around to fight it."_

"_War?" Kakashi wonders._

_Suddenly one of the Sound 4 appears behind Kakashi and sinks her fangs in his neck. As she releases him, she bites harder and takes a small chunk of Kakashi's skin and spits it out._

"_Was that really necessary Kobura?" Tokage looks on in amusement._

_Kakashi falls to the ground and tries to stop the bleeding on his neck. Anko and Asuma attack the slithering female sound nin who avoids their attack easily._

"_Stop!" An out of breath Kakashi orders Anko and Asuma._

_Anko and Asuma stop pursuing Kobura and return to Kakashi's side._

"_You mentioned something about war…" Kakashi weakly says._

_Tokage looks at his teammate Ari, who pounds his fist into the wall._

"_On second thought, it's best that you die now." Tokage laughs and disappears with his teammates._

"_The place is collapsing!" Asuma shouts. Anko and Asuma prop Kakashi up and they run through the chaos. _

_A bunch of equipments and rubble block their path. A puff of smoke clouds them and a huge frog appears with Jiraiya standing on its head._

"_C'mon!" The white haired saanin shouts._

_They jump on the giant frog and bust their way through the rubble until they reach the outdoors. Outside, Kakashi collapses and falls off the frog but Asuma catches him before reaching the ground._

"_What happened?" Jiraiya asks._

"_He was poisoned and he's bleeding badly." Anko answers. "What happened with Orochimaru?_

"_Gone…escaped. We should take him back to Konoha." Jiraiya waits for Asuma to place Kakashi on the frog before moving to their next destination._

"_Jiraiya-sama, one of the sound 4 mentioned something about war."_

"_Hmmm…we'll talk about it with the Hokage. Right now, we have to look after Kakashi."_

_After 4 days in Konoha Hospital, Kakashi finally opens his eyes._

"_Finally, you're awake," Kurenai sighs as she says this._

"_You were worried about me?" Kakashi inquires._

"_No, I was ordered to guard you. It's Genma's turn tomorrow."_

_Kakashi sits up and places his hand over his mask and notices that it's a surgical mask. _

"_Don't worry; nobody saw your face except for the Hokage." Kurenai states._

"_No, that's not it. I was just yawning."_

"_You're lucky. Hokage-sama and Shizune worked really hard to get all that poison out of your system."_

_Kakashi puts a hand on his neck and winces. Kurenai sees his loose bandage and sits on his bed to fix it._

"_This is familiar huh?" Kakashi chuckles._

"_Well, at least now we're even."_

"_It's never about being even."_

"_True." _

"_I should tell the Hokage that you're awake. She'll debrief you and fill you in on what's happening." Kurenai says with urgency in her voice. "Is there anything else you need."_

"_Maybe a kiss would take the pain away." Kakashi playfully states._

"_You are such an idiot."_

"_Well you did ask what I wanted."_

"_NEED. I asked you what you NEEDED."_

"_What if I NEED you to kiss my pain away." Kakashi teases._

_Kurenai growls in frustration as she looks at Kakashi. Then all of a sudden her expression changes from frustration to one that looks like seduction. She sits on Kakashi's lap and straddles his hips. She slowly runs her finger from his stomach, to his chest, and finally stops on the hem of his mask. Her lips lean in closer as she plays with the hem of the mask. Just as she's about to pull down the mask, she stops and gets off Kakashi. She leaves the room and a baffled Kakashi just stares at the door._

"_What a tease." Kakashi lies back down and tries to get a hold of himself._

_Kakashi was discharged the next day. He waits until night time before going to Kurenai's apartment. Kurenai opens the door and finds that there was no one there. As soon as she turns around, she throws a kunai, which almost hits Kakashi._

_"What are you doing here? Kurenai is clearly irritated._

_Kakashi moves closer to her. He removes his mask and kisses her hard on the lips. Kurenai finds herself being pushed against the wall as she kisses him back. Kakashi pulls back and looks into the Kunoichi's red eyes to predict her next move. She kisses him again, which ignites the passion in Kakashi. He trails soft kisses along her neck, which causes her to moan. His hands try to look for a way to remove her clothes as she captures him in a liplock again. Kakashi lifts up Kurenai's legs and wraps them around his hips._

_"Which way to the bedroom?" He huskily asks._

_Later that night, Kakashi removes himself from Kurenai and lies down beside her._

_"You look good without a mask. You have nice lips." Kurenai complements Kakashi._

_"You look good without clothes. Nakedness accentuates your beauty." Kakashi reitirates._

_Kurenai lightly slaps him on the chest as she gets out of bed._

_"Where are you going?" Kakashi inquires._

_"I have a covert mission with Anko. We're leaving in less than an hour."_

_"You can skip and just stay here."_

_Kurenai continues dressing herself and Kakashi pulls her down back on the bed._

_"Kakashi-"_

_Kakashi nuzzles her neck before kissing her again. After a couple of seconds, Kurenai pulls back and traces his lips with her finger._

_"I should go but you can stay here for the night."_

_"Maybe we should get together again." Kakashi suggests._

_Kurenai stands up and sighs. _

_"Maybe this should just be a one time thing."_

_Kurenai gives him a quick kiss on the lips before leaving. Little did she know how persistent Kakashi is into getting what he wants._

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Naruto puts his hands in his pocket as he, Howaito and Sakura walk through the village. Sakura looks around then looks at Naruto. It amuses her that he's oblivious with the girls' whispering, giggling, swooning, and pointing. An orange haired girl with a bag stops them in their tracks.

"Naruto-kun." She offers the bag to him.

"What's this Ariina-chan?"

"It's just some pork ramen. I'm guessing you haven't had lunch yet."

"Ah, that's so like you. You're always looking after me." Naruto charmingly smiles at her, causing the young girl to blush.

Sakura can feel herself turn red with anger as she watches the girl flirt with Naruto. She links her arm with his and smiles at the girl.

"I'm sorry but Naruto and I have to get going now." Sakura says with forced kindness.

Sakura pries Naruto away. She removes her hand from his arm when Ariina is no longer visible. They reach the home that Naruto shares with Ryo and invites Sakura in, while Howaito remains outside.

"Uncle!" Naruto yells as he sets the food down on the table. "He must be out on a date." Naruto considers.

"You live here?" Naruto nods at Sakura's question. "It's nice."

Ryo arrives and makes his way to the kitchen.

"Naruto, do you mind feeding the foxes?"

"Uncle, I have a guest."

Ryo comes out of the kitchen drinking a glass of water and sees the pink haired kunoichi.

"Hi." Sakura greets him while blushing.

"Hello. I'm Denkou Ryo."

"Haruno Sakura."

Naruto enthusiastically runs to Sakura's side as he further explains who she is.

"We were in team 7 together." Naruto tells his uncle.

"Ah, so you're from Konoha." Sakura nods and Ryo continues, "What brings you here?"

"The Hokage asked me to patrol the areas near Konoha for any signs of Orochimaru's allies. Konoha's preparing for war and we have sources that he's going to attack very soon."

"Orochimaru…" Naruto seethes. "That bastard snake, I'll kill him. (pauses) What about Sasuke? Have you heard anything about him?"

"No, but Jiraiya-sama was able to stop him from transferring to Sasuke."

"That's good." Naruto releases a sigh.

"I'm guessing you need Naruto back." Ryo says.

"Uncle…"

"Naruto, it's time for you to return. I've taught you a lot of things and it's time for you to use them to protect those who are important to you. It's time for you to chase your dream again."

"What about you? Why don't you come with us?" Naruto pleads.

"I can't. Besides, it's time for me to go to the Lightning country."

"You can't keep wandering around. You can come to Konoha with us and…"

"No." Ryo says with a firm voice.

Naruto moves closer to his uncle and quietly tells him, "Your brother is a hero in that village. You said it yourself that he loved Konoha. Maybe you can stop by and pay your respects."

"I honour him in my own way. Just leave it Naruto. I don't want us to part in bad terms."

The next morning, Naruto packs his stuff in the bedroom and heads to the living room. He finds Sakura and Ryo playing with Howaito and Shiroi.

"Good morning." Naruto says.

"Morning. Breakfast's on the table. I suggest you eat first."

Naruto puts his bag near the door and eats his breakfast while Sakura and Ryo continue to play with the foxes.

Naruto quickly finishes his breakfast and joins Sakura and Ryo in the living room.

"How did you find Naruto? Are you really related or is he just calling you uncle?" Sakura asks.

"I found Naruto wandering around the village and…Naruto and I…" Ryo looks at Naruto to make sure that it's ok to reveal more.

"That's a story I'll tell you another time." Naruto tells Sakura. "I guess we should get going."

Naruto gets up and looks at his uncle. Ryo smiles at him and grabs Naruto's shoulders. Naruto opens the door and Howaito runs to his side looking up at him.

"I guess he wants to go with you." Ryo explains.

Naruto smiles at the happy fox and follows Sakura out. When they near Konoha, they find smokes and explosions just outside the village.

"Orochimaru has attacked." Sakura utters.

Naruto and Sakura run towards the battle scene with Howaito charging at the front.

Author's note: Sorry for not updating sooner but it's been a busy week. I try to update as soon as I can and I hoped you enjoyed the chapter.


	7. Chapter 7: Yellow

All jounins, chuunins, and ANBU squads gather at a hall in the Hokage building.

"Orochimaru is on his way here. Our spy—Hiretsu, was able to get us valuable information regarding the bastard snake's plan. They will be arriving at out gates by noon, but we will attack them before that happens. We will engage them before they reach Konoha. Iruka, you and 3 other chuunins will gather the women and the children and hide them from the dangers; after that join us in battle. Neji, you will take your team, team 8 and 9, and with you and attack from the south side. Kakashi, you and Gai will lead half of the jounins and attack from the east; Asuma and Shizune, your team takes the west. Jiraiya and I will take the ANBU and attack head on. My goal will be to attack Orochimaru and dispose of him as soon as possible." Tsunade gives a serious look at the ninjas present.

"Cut the head of the snake and the body will die. That's your strategy Tsunade-hime?" Jiraiya nods his head.

"No doubt that Orochimaru's army will be genetically engineered—" Kakashi states.

"As a Konoha shinobi, you are the strongest ninjas around. Orochimaru knows that he that he won't be able to beat Konoha without enhancing his ninjas." Tsunade confidently tells them. "There is no doubt that some of us will not survive, but as Konoha ninjas, it is our priority to look out for each other. We fight for Konoha and the people in it. You are the most talented and strongest shinobis, and we will be nothing but victorious."

"In that case, we should head to our positions. That snake will be here in an hour." Jiraiya adds.

Later on...

Taking his team into their proper location, Kakashi can feel unusually strong evil chakra approaching. He and his team are hiding among the trees and he senses Orochimaru's team getting themselves in position. Just as Kakashi's about to attackthe group beneath him, he feels someone punch him in the head. He was able to land on his feet and he and his team engage in the battle.

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Naruto and Sakura are walking along the forest on their way home.

"Naruto, I feel like I owe you an apology." Sakura tells him.

"For what?"

"Because of me you left Konoha. I wouldn't have caused you to promise me to bring Sasuke back. You wouldn't have been hurt—"

"Sakura-chan, that's all in the past. No apologies needed. My leaving of Konoha was actually a good thing."

"How is that?" Sakura questions.

"I found things about myself, about my past. Because of that, I was able to make myself stronger."

Naruto and Sakura stop in their tracks as they see an alarmed Howaito. The white fox takes a sniff in the air and barks in Konoha's direction.

"Something's going on in the village." Naruto worries.

They see an explosion from afar and rush their way to the village with the snow fox charging ahead.

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The Konoha shinobis are having difficulty. Many of the teams are scattered and Tsunade was busy healing some of her ninjas and disposing the strong sound jounins. Jiraiya is battling a giant snake summoned by Orochimaru who is just standing on the sideline watching the scene unfold.

"Well Sasuke-kun, feel free to join in when you want." Orochimaru smiles at his student.

"It's pointless when they're already weakened." Sasuke appears from the shadows.

Kakashi joins Jiraiya in his battle and they both easily dispose of the summoned giant snakes.

"Well Orochimaru, I guess it's your turn." Jiraiya begins to approach Orochimaru.

Orochimaru smirks, forms a few seals, then yells, "Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei!"

The ground shakes as acoffin arises from it. Jiraiya and Kakashi look on in anxiety wondering what creature would appear from behind the casket.

"What evil have you summoned now?" Jiraiya anxiously wonders.

The casket opens and a spiky blonde hair comes out.

"Sensei." Kakashi gasps.

Orochimaru approaches the resurrected Yondaime and places a seal on him. The Yondaime reawakens and glares at Jiraiya and Kakashi.

"Destroy them all." Orochimaru orders with a smile.

Jiraiya and Kakashi don their fighting stance knowing their side is at a great disadvantage. The Yondaime takes out 10 trident shaped kunais and throws them in the direction of the battle behind him. Jiraiya and Kakashi observe their comrades in the middle of the battle field fall as the yellow flash pass by them. Yondaime returns to his position and faces Jiraiya and Kakashi. Suddenly, a bowl haired man appears and attempts to kick him in the head.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Yells Gai.

Yondaime takes a step to the left and Gai misses his target, landing instead on Kakashi, who swiftly catches him.

"Impossible! Jiraiya-sama, Kakashi, what's the plan?" The spandex wearing man anxiously asks.

"Try to avoid the kunais he throws." Kakashi orders.

"Then I won't give him an opportunity to throw them!" Gai runs to the Yondaime and attacks him with taijutsu.

Gai is not landing a punch or a kick. Yondaime is effectively blocking and avoiding Gai's attacks. In addition to Gai's attack, another kick joins in the battle, which grazes the Yondaime's cloak.

"LEE! What do you think you're doing?" Gai takes a break from attacking and pulls his prized pupil back.

"I'm here to fight by your side Gai-sensei."

Kakashi was about to join the two taijutsu users but Jiraiya pulls him back.

"Let's see how they fight first. This will give us a chance to look for an opportunity or an opening." Jiraiya reasons.

Lee removes his weights, which gives him an invisible speed. He uses his rapid movements to confuse Yondaime about his location and give Gai the opportunity to look for an opening. Just as Gai and Lee were about to land a kick on both sides of the Yondaime, the blonde spiky haired man disappears in a blur. Gai and Lee immediately stop their attack. They turn around only to be hit with the Yondaime's rasengan on their chests.

"Kakashi, now! While he's turned his back on us."

Jiraiya and Kakashi swiftly charge towards the 4th Hokage. When the Hokage turns around, Jiraiya disappears but Kakashi reveals his Sharingan eye and keeps charging, with a chidori on hand. Kakashi thrusts his chakra filled hand in the direction of Yondaime who quickly catches his wrist and avoids contact with the chidori. He powerfully kicks Kakashi who flies a couple of feet back and winces as he hits a tree. Jiraiya appears from behind the Yondaime and performs Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld). With the Yondaime stuck on the ground, Jiraiya blows a huge fire ball technique. Knowing the 4th wouldn't be defeated that easily, Jiraiya grows his spiked hair and uses it to cover his body. A wave of kunais are easily deflected as they hit his defensive white, spiky hair-cover and he easily avoids Yondaime's kicks and punches. As Jiraiya successfully avoids Yondaime's attacks, a sword pierces his side and he falls. The sword of Kusanagi retreats into Orochimaru's mouth and he smirks.

"Watch Sasuke-kun. I have the power to control the supposed most powerful ninja ever." Orochimaru smiles in delight.

Yondaime approaches Kakashi, who is having trouble getting up. Having no other choice, Kakashi attempts to perform the Mangekyou Sharingan but the 4th kicks his eye. The force was so strong that Kakashi's eye swells up shut. He holds his eye as it throbs with pain and with his other eye sees the 4th approach him. The 4th forms the rasengan in his hand and propels it towards Kakashi's direction. But at the last minute a trident shaped kunai passes by and a yellow blur appears. Kakashi looks up to see the back of another blonde spiky haired guy and the Yondaime landing on the ground.

"What the…" Kakashi thought.

"Kakashi sensei." An unrecognizable deep and playful voice keeps Kakashi on high alert.

Naruto turns and props Kakashi up and holds him against a tree.

"Naruto?" Kakashi looks up in surprise as Naruto is now an inch taller.

Sakura and Howaito appear next to Kakashi who heals his eye and his other wounds.

"Sakura, go help Lee and Gai." Kakashi directs her.

Naruto forms a seal and throws trident shaped kunais at the Yondaime.

"SHUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" The blonde men shout as they attack each other at lightning speed.

Kakashi heads to Gai's location with Sakura, who brings consciousness back to Gai and Lee.

"Sakura-chan?" Lee says in a dazed.

Sakura was about to be attacked by a sound ninja, while she helps Lee, but a ball of electric chakra forces the sound nin back. Howaito growls in anger as he stays by Sakura's side.

"What's with the fox?" Kakashi asks.

"Belongs to Naruto. He'll be a huge help." Sakura replies.

Gai watches the 4th fight with Naruto and stares in amazement.

"Impossible! Lee and I were fighting in our fastest speed and couldn't land a hit." Whined the Konoha's Green Beast.

Kakashi looks to where Jiraiya is lying and finds Shizune healing him. He turns his attention back to Naruto and watches him fight in awe.

Hidden somewhere within the trees, Orochimaru calls his sound 4, and orders them to surround the 4th and Naruto.

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Naruto was able to land some punches on the Yondaime, who has stopped using the body flicker technique. Mirroring his move, Naruto stops throwing kunais and stands firmly on his ground while facing Yondaime. Orochimaru, looking amused steps closer to the two blonde ninjas as the sound 4 surrounds them. The snake-villain nods to his sound nins who put their palms together and create a purple barrier around Naruto and Yondaime. Orochimaru enters the purple barrier in order to get a better view of the fight.

"This should be very interesting." Orochimaru creepily chuckles.

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Kakashi runs to Jiraiya's side who is being patched up by Shizune.

"Kakashi? Where's Yondaime?" Jiraiya looks around.

"Fighting Naruto." The grey haired jounin replies.

"Naruto?"

"In that barrier." Kakashi points to the location and finds a cloud of smoke inside the purple shield.


	8. Chapter 8: Boom

_It has been more a month since Ryo has had Naruto training with quick white foxes. Naruto's lying down on the ground taking a break. Looking to the foxes, Naruto stands up again, ready to begin. Shiroi, disappears in a blur and Naruto still can't see where she went. He guesses that she hid behind the huge boulder and gets it wrong. Howaito spits a ball of electricity at Naruto. But instead of the usual of getting hit, Naruto becomes quick enough to dodge it. His eyes can now follow the ball's lightning speed and his body is able to anticipate his movements better._

"_Stop!" Ryo orders the fox. "Now, guess where Shiroi's hiding."_

_Naruto turns his eyes at Shiroi who disappears in a blur. This time Naruto is able to follow the blur with his eyes. It feels as if Shiroi (who still looks like a blur) is moving in slow motion._

"_Behind the tree on the left." Naruto points out._

_Shiroi pops out from the tree and walks toward Ryo._

"_I- I DID IT!" Naruto jumps._

"_Now you're ready for the next step."_

_Ryo takes Naruto deeper into the forest where it's congested with trees._

"_The exercise I made you do earlier was to make this next technique easier. Now watch me as I go to the end of the forest and back." Ryo makes sure that Naruto is watching._

_Naruto observes his uncle do a couple of seals, throw a kunai, thenwinks at him. Suddenly, Ryo disappears and a kunai flies back towards Naruto. Out of the kunai, Ryo reappears. Naruto stands there in shock as Ryo travels in a flash. Ryo hits five trees with a tagged kunai. In a sudden flash, Naruto sees the trees being marked with a long slash, by a flash. Ryo returns to Naruto's side and brushes his long black cloak._

"_This technique is called Hiraishin no jutsu. It can only be done by 3 people, including you. Now, I want you to do what I just did. After you form the seals (Ryo shows him the seals) I want you to gather chakra and distribute it evenly throughout your body." Ryo pulls out an odd shaped, tagged kunai, "These kunais are different from your usual one. They're sort of like magnets that grab your body once you release and distribute chakra correctly."_

_Naruto forms the seals needed to do the jutsu, throws a kunai, releases a huge amount of chakra and distributes it throughout his body. He stares at the kunai he just threw and he feels his body being sucked forward. Out of the blue, Naruto is appearing out of the kunai and is rapidly heading towards a tree. Everything was happening too quickly andsmacks his face into the tree._

"_OUCH!" Naruto grabs his face as he experiences an extreme amount of pain._

_Ryo approaches him, and helps him get up._

"_There's a reason why I made you train with the foxes. Use what you learned."_

"_It was my first try. I didn't know what to expect." Naruto justifies his failure._

Naruto is standing toe to toe against the 4th Hokage, surrounded with a purple barrier. He sees Orochimaru from the corner of his eye and throws a kunai in his direction, ready to attack him at lightning speed. But as he gets closer to the snake-like figure, Yondaime intercepts him and punches him in the head. Naruto flies back but is able to land on his feet. Naruto and the Yondaime both draw out blood from their thumbs, form seals, and slam their hands to the ground.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" They both scream.

A cloud of smoke covers the area as two huge frogs with armors become visible. Naruto jumps on the head of the orange colored frog and Yondaime places himself on the yellow frog. The frogs charge towards each other and Naruto forms seals.

"Doton: Yumi numa!" Naruto shouts.

A big puddle of swamp abruptly stops the yellow frog. Naruto's frog blows out a fountain of oilat the Yondaime's direction followed by an explosive tag. As the cloud from the explosion clears, Naruto finds himself being monstrously kicked by the 4th.

"Shit! Not only is he fast, but he hits so damn hard." Naruto thinks as he grimaces from the hit.

The 4th flashes his way to Naruto to hit him again but Naruto escapes by using Shunshin no jutsu. While on air, Naruto pops out of the kunai, grabs the weapon and throws it back in the direction of the Yondaime. He was able to land a quick jab at the Yondaime and sends him falling from the frog. The yellow frog drowns in the swamp,while the orange frog snaps his tongue at the Yondaime and wraps his tongue around the Hokage. As the Yondaime becomes more constricted, his body disappears in a flash of lightning, which sends electricity through the frog and disappears in a puff. Naruto looks around and searches for the Yondaime, who is nowhere in sight. Yondaime hits Naruto from behind, who falls to his knees. Naruto sees the Yondaime do a couple of seals and he feels the ground below him rumble. Suddenly, the soil forms into a column, hitting Naruto square in the stomach, and causing him to cough up blood. The column quickly retracts and Naruto falls on his stomach. Slowly getting up, Naruto throws 5 shurikens at the 4th.

"Shuriken, taju kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Knowing that the Yondaime would avoid getting hits from the shurikens, Naruto transforms the weapons into multiple figure of himself and punch their way to the Yondaime.

"Hari jizo!" The Yondaime yells.

The 4th's spiky hair becomes longer and covers his body with it. As Naruto's kage bunshins make contact with his shield, they disappear in wisps of clouds. Naruto body flickers his way to Yondaime and places a punch on his chest. The Yondaime, prepared for the attack, forms a rasengan, dodges Naruto, and hits him with the rasengan. Naruto is forced back 20 feet—almost hitting the purple wall. Still holding a rasengan, Naruto sees the Yondaime in the middle of the field, waiting for Naruto. Pulling out a kunai, Naruto throws the weapon and teleports his way to Yondaime. He pulls out an odama rasengan, which makes contact with the 4th's rasengan. When the two techniques collide, a huge explosion erupts sending everyone in the field back a couple of feet and disables the purple barrier. Naruto slowly stands up but the 4th grabs him by the shoulder. An intense pain hits through Naruto's hands and it slowly travels through his arms. As the pain is making its way to his shoulders, Naruto sees a transparent demonic figure behind the 4th. Naruto, with no choice, taps into the kyuubi power. Even with one kyuubi tail, Naruto can't free himself from the 4th and a 2nd tail forms. But before forming the 2nd tail, Yondaime drops Naruto and a sealed tag lands on Naruto's head.

"Naruto, you okay?" Jiraiya runs to Naruto's side.

"What did you do?" Naruto asks while in a daze.

"I disabled Orochimaru's technique."

Naruto looks up to find the 4th with a kind smile. He steps closer to Naruto, who still has the same intense facial expression.

"You're an amazing fighter. I'm sorry that we had to meet like this." Yondaime switches his gaze from Naruto to Jiraiya. "Sensei."

Knowing he's doomed, Yondaime body flickers, grabs one of the sound 4 nin, Ari, and allows the demon god to retrieve both of their souls. The Yondaime dies and his body melts, revealing a deceased Mist ninja inside.

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Kakashi returned to the battlefield, while Naruto fights the 4th. Along with Neji, they face off against Kabuto and Sai. The medic shinobi forms a chakra scalpel (shosen jutsu) in his hands and proceeds to attack Kakashi. He hits Kakashi, who turns out to be a kage bunshin. Kakashi hits Kabuto with 2 shurikens in the arm. Kabuto quickly heals himself and charges towards Kakashi, who dodges his attacks and punches him in the face. Kabuto growls in anger as he lunges at Kakashi and grazes his left arm. Kakashi feels his arm go limp as he continues to avoid Kabuto's punches.

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Naruto and Jiraiya are now facing off against Orochimaru and Sasuke. Sasuke's appearance has not drastically change. He has longer hair (that reaches his shoulders) with the upper half of his hair tied up to keep his bangs out of his eyes. But his face, has the same brooding expression. His clothing consists of a grey robe to complement Orochimaru's appearance.

"Sasuke, you bastard. How can you associate yourself with this creepy snake?"

Sasuke merely scoffs and activates his seal. A pair of hand looking wings appear from his back and smirks at his rival. He charges at Naruto with a chidori at hand and Naruto lunges at him with a kunai at hand.


	9. Chapter 9: Lightning

Sasuke thrusts his chidori into Naruto, who turns into a puff of smoke. Still holding the chidori at hand, Sasuke looks around for his blonde rival.

"Naruto! Show yourself, you stupid…" Naruto pops up from the ground, grabs Sasuke's legs and throws him against a tree.

The Uchiha braces for the impact by softening the contact with his hand-like wings. He stands up, runs toward the blonde young man while forming seals.

"Hebi dokubutsu!" Sasuke's arms transform into snakes that spit out multiple needles at Naruto.

Naruto's able to avoid Sasuke's attacks with his lightning speed. He runs towards the Uchiha with incredible speed and kicks him in the stomach. Sasuke catches Naruto's leg to stop the attack and counters by punching him in the face. Naruto takes a few steps back and watches as Sasuke summons a giant snake. The snake lunges at Naruto who takes the opportunity to jump on the reptile's head and attack the Uchiha. Sasuke sees Naruto approaching.

"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!"

Blowing a huge fireball in Naruto's direction, Naruto body flickers his way to get behind Sasuke and lands a roundhouse kick on his back. Sasuke falls off the snake but is able to land on his feet. Sasuke and Naruto take a few jabs and kicks at each other, trying to prevent the other from forming seals and doing any jutsus. The giant snake opens its mouth to eat Naruto, but the blonde fighter disposes the snake by feeding it the rasengan. Sasuke takes this opportunity to attack Naruto from behind.

"Kanashibari no Jutsu," Sasuke paralyzes Naruto, as he turns around to counter the attack.

Naruto, not being able to move his body, watches as Sasuke charges up another chidori and prepares for the kill.

"C'mon, just concentrate." Naruto closes his eyes as he moves his chakra towards his body to give himself the strength to move.

Sasuke was just about to attack but Naruto jumps up and lands a kick on the head. The chidori in Sasuke's hand goes flying off as he loses his grip on it. An agonizing scream is heard as the chidori makes contact with another person who is not visible to the fighters at the moment. Sasuke grabs Naruto from behind. Naruto senses great danger as he struggles to be free. It turns out that Sasuke had a Jibaku Bunshin (suicide bombing clone) placed on Naruto. An explosion ensues and Naruto is lying on the ground, greatly injured. The real Sasuke approaches the body, which turns into smoke.

"Stupid Naruto and his kage bunshin." Sasuke mutters.

Naruto appears as the smoke clears.

Sasuke deactivates his seal and his sharingan.

"I have to say, I'm impressed," smirks the Uchiha. "But you're insulting me by not using the demon in you." Sasuke reactivates his seal.

"You bastard! Just give it up; you won't be able to beat me."

"If that's the case, why don't you just kill me?"

Naruto's thoughts flash back to the promise he made to Sakura.

"Last chance Sasuke. Stop all of this and I won't have to really hurt you."

"I can't believe you're more stupid than before." Sasuke laughs.

Naruto forms an X with his arms with 2 fingers out on each hand.

_In the forest, Naruto improves his use of Hiraishin no jutsu. His uncle watches as he marks each tree with a kunai. Naruto lands beside his uncle and proudly grins._

"_What do you think? Aren't I awesome?" Naruto beams._

"_It took you a couple of weeks to get it right?"_

"_Shut up! At least I've perfected it." Naruto glares at Ryo._

"_Fine, whatever. This next technique I'm going to teach you is a bit easier to learn."_

_Ryo whistles for Shiroi who arrives immediately in front of him. Naruto sees his uncle's arms become covered in electricity as he forms an X shape._

"_Fuka Tama!" Shouts Ryo_

_The white fox shoots out a ball of electricity from her mouth. Ryo, with lightning speed, catches the ball and it disappears in his hand. Naruto can clearly see the electricity move throughout Ryo's arm as the ball dissipates. _

"_Whoa!" Naruto cries out in awe._

_Ryo punches Naruto in the gut with his lightning powered arm. Naruto falls to the ground and can't seem to bring himself to get up._

"_What was that for!" Naruto groans in pain as he grabs his stomach, while lying on the ground._

"_This jutsu is called Hekireki kutsuu. In order to really teach you this technique, you have to experience the pain it causes. Now, I didn't punch you really hard so you shouldn't have any internal damages. You may also feel other parts of your body in some sort of pain, that's because of the electricity that accompanies the massive punch. Naruto, practice this technique with the foxes; catch their fuka tama without feeling any pain."_

"_How do I do it?"_

Naruto can feel lightning electricity flow through his arms as he charges them with chakra. Sasuke smirks as he watches--unimpressed with Naruto's jutsu.

"Last chance Sasuke."

"Don't be a moron," replies the Uchiha.

Naruto takes out a few kunai and throws them towards Sasuke, who dodges them. Naruto body flickers to the kunai that passed by Sasuke and throws 3 more in his direction. Sasuke knocks down the kunais to the side. The blonde fighter quickly appears right in front of the Uchiha and delivers a thundering punch to the gut. Naruto continues punching, sending his rival up in the air. Sasuke can't bring himself for a counterattack because of the extreme amount of pain he's experiencing throughout his body. The Uchiha lands hard on the floor and coughs up blood. Sasuke holds on to his stomach and watches Naruto walk towards him.

"You don't have the guts to kill me." Sasuke growls at him.

Naruto forms the rasengan in his electricly charged hand and hits his rival's chest. Sasuke's eyes close as he feels the attack connect with him. Looking down at his rival, Naruto picks up Sasuke's body and searches for Sakura, who's healing a jounin.

"Naruto!" Sakura gasps as she sees Sasuke's body.

"He's just unconscious, but he's badly hurt. Although I highly doubt it, if he wakes up and tries to attack, don't be afraid to hit him." Naruto leaves to return to battle.

Naruto is looking for the right opportunity to join in the fight between Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Just as he's about to jump in, Tsunade grabs his shoulder and pulls him back down.

"Tsunade-obaasan, what are you doing?"

"Naruto, go help the others. Leave the bastard snake to me. It's best if a sannin destroys him. Jiraiya and I should be able to kill him once and for all."

Naruto obeys the Hokage and goes to help Kakashi and the others.

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Kakashi finds himself in trouble as Kabuto is now backed up by Tokage, Sai and a griffin he summoned from his drawing. The copy cat ninja's body is tiring from the use of his sharingan and he's been fighting for hours. But fortunately, Neji and Howaito arrive to help the jounin.

"This fox Sakura left me is pretty strong. He and I can take care of the other two, while you go for four eyes," Neji tells Kakashi.

Howaito attacks the griffin as Kakashi and Neji go for Kabuto and Tokage. Sai pulls back on the griffin to avoid the fox and attack Kakashi and Neji. But with the fox's lightning speed, Howaito is able to deflect the griffin's attack on the jounins. The fox bites down on the griffin's neck and its loud screech disrupt the other battle. Thrashing its neck around, the griffin uses its talon to scrape the fox off. Howaito's side gets slashed by the giant creature's claws. The snow fox whimpers in pain as blood is drawing out from his side. Unable to move, the fox can only watch as the griffin swoops down on its prey. Kakashi kage bunshins, and rescues the fox by moving it out of the way. Naruto arrives and sees his companion bleeding badly. He takes the fox from the clone and wraps the wound with his blue cloak. Naruto hides him behind a tree and joins in with Kakashi's battle.

Half of Konoha ninjas are pushed into the village. Buildings are being demolished as the fighting intensifies. Knowing that he can't waste anymore time, Kakashi forces his injured arm to form the proper seals for Raikiri. Naruto battles with Sai who is flying around in his griffin. Naruto runs pass Kabuto as Kakashi lunges with Raikiri. Instead of hitting the medic nin, Kakashi's attack runs through Sai's chest, killing him instantly and turning the griffin into a puddle of ink. Naruto attacks Kabuto with the rasengan, which does not kill the nin, but does cause Naruto to fall on his knees.

"Naruto!" Kakashi runs to his side.

"I'm ok," Naruto declares.

"Naruto-kun, you're running out of chakra," chokes out a weakened Kabuto. "But, I am impressed; to fight the 4th and Sasuke-kun all in the same day-"

Neji lands on top Kabuto as he falls on his back. Tokage dusts of his muscular arms as he grabs Neji and throws him in Kakashi's direction. Kakashi catches the unconscious Neji and gently places him on the ground.

"Sorry Kabuto, I didn't mean for this filthy ninja to land on you," Tokage states.

Kabuto stands up and stares at the trio of Konoha ninjas.

"Although you all have fought valiantly, the end must come for you," announces the medic ninja.

Just as Naruto tries to call on the power of the Kyuubi, a dark blur appears and Kabuto and Tokage are pinned against a tree. A man in a black cloak holds Kabuto by the neck and a white fox is holding Tokage by biting his neck.

"Uncle?" Naruto weakly mutters.

The figure removes his hood and confirms Naruto's assumption. Ryo charges his left hand and punches it through Kabauto's chest, directly crushing and destroying his heart. The snow fox bites down harder and rips out Tokage's throat killing him in the process. Ryo approaches Naruto who is now unconscious from exhaustion.

"Are you from Konoha?" Ryo asks Kakashi.

Kakashi nods and Ryo helps him to his feet.

"Who are you?" asks the grey-haired jounin.

Ryo looks down at Naruto and answers, "I am an ally of Konoha."

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Naruto wakes up in a hospital bed and finds Kakashi sitting in a chair and reading his favorite novel.

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto weakly utters.

"You're awake."

"What happened?"

"Well, we we're able to drive Orochimaru's army out. Konoha's damaged but reparations are on their way."

"Orochimaru, did he..."

"He's dead. Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama were able to kill him."

Naruto sits up in his bed upon hearing this.

"But Naruto…although we were successful…there's something…something else." Kakashi's tone is filled with sorrow.

"What? What is it?"

"It's about Iruka-sensei. He died in the war. I know what he means to you…"

"H-how—what—how—how did he…" Naruto looks for words to say.

"I saw his body and there was no doubt about it, he was hit with the chidori. Although it didn't look like it was forced into him."

Naruto thinks back to his fight with Sasuke when he lost his grip on the chidori. Sasuke interrupts his thoughts on Iruka.

"S-Sasuke, where is he?"

"He's in the hospital, with critical internal injuries," Kakashi responds.

Kakashi watches as Naruto tries to figure out and make sense of what's happening. Naruto feels Kakashi's hand on his shoulder, but he doesn't bother to look up.

"By the way, the Hokage wants to see you as soon as possible. It regards your return to the village."


	10. Chapter 10: Human

3 days after the war…

Sasuke opens his eyes to find himself in a hospital bed.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura murmurs.

The Uchiha quickly sits up and sees his wrists bound and sharp pain shoots in his stomach. He tries to grab his stomach but is unable to.

"You're bound by chakra cord that's impossible to cut or break," Sakura explains.

Sasuke scoffs and looks to the window.

"Sasuke-kun, would you like something to eat?"

Sakura continues to be ignored and she releases a sigh. A knock on the door forces them both to look in the same direction. Hinata enters the room carrying a yellow box.

"Uh-S-Sakura-chan, the Hokage needs to see you." Hinata stutters.

Sakura heads to the door but not before looking at Sasuke. When she leaves, Hinata sits in the chair and quietly watches her hands. Silence continues until Sasuke's stomach growls, although no one seems to acknowledge it. Hinata takes out a rice cake from the yellow box and places it Sasuke's hand. She leaves the room for a moment and Sasuke takes this time to eat. He finishes in two bites and as soon as he's done, Hinata returns to her seat.

"W-why do you hate Naruto-kun so much?" Hinata musters the courage to ask.

Sasuke continues to look out the window and allows the silence to take over.

"Is someone always going to be guarding me?" Sasuke asks with irritation in his voice.

"Yes," Hinata quietly says.

Sasuke's hand forms a fist and squeezes hard.

"Damn Orochimaru! Everything failed! That stupid bastard failed!" Sasuke thought.

Hinata continues to look at her yellow box and twiddle her fingers while Sasuke continues to look out the window.

"I don't hate Naruto," Sasuke responds to Hinata's question.

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2 days earlier…

_After the memorial for the fallen ninjas and those who attended are scattering to their own ways, Naruto and Tsunade walk towards the shrine of where the names of the fallen heroes are engraved on._

"_I'm assuming you're staying with us on a permanent basis?" Tsunade inquires._

"_Yes, as long as the kyuubi's under control."_

"_Kyuubi or no kyuubi, it doesn't matter. The village will deal with it the best it can."_

_They approach the monument and see Ryo paying his respects._

"_Uncle."_

_Ryo turns around to face them. Upon seeing the Hokage, he bows._

"_Hokage-sama." Ryo utters._

_Tsunade bows back._

"_Denkou Ryo, my student Sakura has told me all about you. Konoha owes you a great deal—not just for our victory but for looking out for Naruto as well."_

_Ryo grins back in appreciation then looks at Naruto._

"_You're staying here?" Ryo smiles at Naruto who nods at him._

"_Ryo-san, you're welcome to dwell here if you'd like." Tsunade states._

"_I would like to stay until the village gets back on its feet."_

_Naruto's face beams as he hears this._

"_Very well then; on a different note, I want to ask you both about your connections with the Yondaime."_

_The two blondes glance at each other._

"_Naruto, if you shave off you're mustache, everyone would think the 4th is walking among us. Ryo-san, you look like a relative of Yondaime. You both can do Hiraishin—the yellow flash's move."_

"_Tsunade-obaasan, your assumptions are correct. Yondaime is—was my father and Ryo's his brother." Naruto asserts._

"_And I will keep this information to myself. But Naruto, many of the shinobis are going to make the connection whether you like itor not. You'll have to deal with the repercussions of having such a significant connection to the 4th."_

"_I know. That's why I didn't want to say anything."_

"_Naruto, I need your help on a different matter. It's about Sasuke's punishment. The advisors are split on either placing him in prison for the rest of his life or send him to his death. I find both options inappropriate. I figured since you know him better than the advisors and I know him, you would see what a suitable punishment is."_

"_When is his sentencing?"_

"_In two days,after he wakes up from the medicine I gave him."_

_After his meeting with Tsunade, Naruto makes his way to the Hokage monuments. He sits on the bench and gazes at each of the previous Hokage's faces. As soon as his eyes land on the 4th Hokage, Naruto feels tears about to come out._

"_Naruto." The blonde turns around to find Jiraiya approaching him._

_Naruto stands up and holds the tears back as Jiraiya nears. The white-haired hermit still towers over Naruto._

"_You know don't you?" Naruto mutters._

"_I knew the moment Yondaime looked at you. I've always suspected that you two were connected. Part of me was thinking that you might be his kid. I wasn't with him every second, so it was a big possibility. While we were training in the mountains--your stubbornness…" Jiraiya chuckles as he remembers._

_Naruto looks down as more tears threaten to come out. Jiraiya approaches him and places a hand on his shoulder._

"_A shinobi must never show his emotions. But, a shinobi is still human and as humans we can't avoid feeling for others."_

_Jiraiya hugs Naruto, who sobs for a moment. Naruto pulls back and regains composure._

"_I guess the old man rubbed off on me." Jiraiya quietly chuckles._

"_Thank you, Ero-sennin."_

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_After the funeral, Kakashi goes straight to his home. He leans on the door, as he feels the last couple of days weigh him down. Many of his comrades were buried. He stopped by to offer flowers to Obito before the ceremony started and smiled to himself as he thought of how similar he and Naruto were._

_Kakashi makes his way to the bedroom and finds Kurenai waiting for him. She approaches him and wraps her arms around his neck. Kakashi places his head on her shoulder and hugs her tightly. This simple gesture lifts the heaviness from Kakshi and finds himself less sorrowful. He pulls back and looks in her eyes._

"_Thanks."_

"_No problem," Kurenai responds._

Kakashi is among other jounins, chuunins, and the advisors, as the ANBU brings Sasuke into the hall. Sakura watches in great anxiety as they place Sasuke to the center of the room.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you left Konoha to join forces with Orochimaru, a traitor of the village. You fought with him in the war against the village and in addition, your chidori killed Umino Iruka." Tsunade reads out. "Is there anything you'd like to say, Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke keeps his silence. The doors open and Naruto enters. Without glancing at Sasuke he speaks with the Hokage.

"If I may say something…Because of Sasuke, I know how he felt the day he lost his family. I know how he feels towards the man who took them away from him. I feel them too. Iruka-sensei is the closest person I ever had as a parent. His kindness gave me multiple chances to prove to the village that I am not worthless. Although he made feel what Itachi made him feel, I don't think he's as heartless as his brother. Keeping him imprisoned will only make him like the criminals that live in the prisons. Killing him—it's just too easy. I think it would be best for the village to reinstate Uchiha Sasuke to team 7. He's a talented ninja and Konoha would benefit from sending him to missions. Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan are strong enough to keep an eye on him. But, should you decide to give him this punishment, I ask that I be removed from team 7."

Kakashi watches as Naruto takes a deep breath and walks out of the room. Sakura's eyes also linger in shock as she hears the last part of Naruto's speech.


	11. Chapter 11: Regroup

Naruto passes by the old training ground and finds Hinata sparring with Kiba and Shino. He watches them and is amazed by Hinata's hand speed. It's as if she's punching with a hundred hands. Her footwork on the other hand, needs a little more work. Kiba and Shino pull back among the trees and throw multiple shurikens at Hinata. Hinata creates a massive blue kaiten that slices up the weapons thrown at her. Her ragged breathing indicates that she's almost out of stamina and falls to her knees. Her teammates and Naruto help her up and seat her on a log nearby.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata blushes as he gently lets go of her arm.

"That was some kaiten Hinata." Naruto causes Hinata to be even redder.

"What brings you here?" Shino asks.

"I just came from the Hokage tower."

"For Sasuke's sentencing." Shino implies and Naruto nods.

"So, what did he get?" Kiba states as he throws a stick for Akamaru to fetch.

"I didn't stay to find out."

"Y-you want to join us in training?" Hinata shyly asks.

"As much as I'd like to, I'd have to say some other time. I have to pick up Howaito from the hospital."

Naruto arrives home after stopping by the hospital. Carrying Howaito in his arms, he gently places him over a rectangular basket with a comforter and pillow. Naruto rubs the fox's head and makes sure that the bandage on his side is still intact. Someone knocks on his door and he answers.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Do you want to go get some Ichiraku's ramen?"

Naruto pauses and sadly response with a, "no."

"I know you're still sad about Iruka-sensei, but I just wanted to thank you for doing what you did for Sasuke. The Hokage took your advice and punished Sasuke accordingly."

"I really don't care what happens to Sasuke. I did what I did to honor Iruka-sensei's kindness towards me."

Sakura, with her teary eyes, grabs Naruto's hand and softly pleads, "Naruto, please…please don't-"

"I can't be in the same group as Sasuke. I won't be forced." He takes Sakura's hand and gently squeezes it, "Even though we're not on the same team, we're still friends."

He releases his hold on Sakura and returns to Howaito.

"Besides, isn't this what you've always wanted—being alone with Sasuke." Naruto chuckles as he thinks back to their first days out of the academy.

His words remind her of the days when she mistreated Naruto for the sake of Sasuke's attention.

"People grow and change Naruto." Sakura tells him before she leaves.

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The next day, Gai's team, team 7, 8, and 9 are gathered in the Hokage's office.

"You're all here today because we need a change. First of all Naruto, you're promoted to chuunin. The way you fought Yondaime during the war, when elite jounins could not even land a punch, you found a way to survive and fight on almost equal level. Considering how much you've improved, I'm confident that you would've easily passed through the exams. Another thing I've noticed during the war was that everyone did not fight along side their own teams. You were all working with whoever was in your vicinity. So, to better improve team work among the groups, I'm going to mix you all up."

Tsunade holds her hand up to silence the murmurs among the crowd.

"Now to announce the new teams:

Kakashi's team 7 will consist Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyuuga Hinata.

Kurenai's team 8 are Akamichi Chouji, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hawari Ten-ten.

Asuma's team 9 are Hyuuga Neji, Nara Shikamaru, and Uzumaki Naruto.

Finally, Gai's team will have, Rock Lee, Yamanaka Ino, and Aburame Shino.

The jounin leaders in each group will supervise how well each of you does on your missions. You will also find yourselves doing more missions on your own while your jounin supervisors are sent on different missions. All of you will have your missions tomorrow, so you have the day off for today. You're dismissed."

Kakashi watches as each person leaves with their team. He was even more attentive when Naruto left with his new team.

That night…

Naruto makes his way to Kakashi's apartment and stops when he sees two people outside. Kakashi was nuzzling Kurenai, who had her arms around his neck. Kakashi moves his hands lower to her back and receives a light slap on the chest from Kurenai. She giggles as he whispers into her ear and he envelopes her in a hug. After Kurenai kisses Kakashi on the cheek, she goes inside the apartment and Naruto decides to confront Kakashi.

"What the hell were you doing to Kurenai-sensei?"

"Hm."

"That, you guys were like…you guys were like…are you…what were you doing?"

"Naruto, (sighs) it's called a relationship."

"Huh?"

"Kurenai and I are in a caring relationship that enables us to… (thinks of the words) be intimate with each other."

"Intimate?"

"Well, you see people have these urges…"

"Urges?"

"Yeah, that can be satisfied by the opposite gender. But, uh, (coughs) our relationship is beyond satisfying urges in our body—"

"So you love her?" A confused Naruto asks.

"Well…um…yeah. But, she doesn't know that."

"Why not?"

"I…I haven't told her."

"Does she live with you?"

"She, uh, sleeps over but she still has her own place (clears throat)."

"So, when I get a girlfriend I'm going to get urges?"

"Something like that. But you can't force it you know…your girlfriend has to agree to it…"

"Kakashi-sensei, what is this urge that you're talking about?"

"(Thinks for a moment) why did you come here Naruto?"

"Mmm. I can't remember."

"Hmm."

"So, Kakashi-sensei, about those urges, are they similar to eating or going to the bathroom."

"Maybe you can ask your uncle?"

"The village is short on manpower so Tsunade-obasaan is sending him to a lot of missions. I mean, he did volunteer to help the village repair itself but I hardly see him."

"Well, he is very skilled and highly intelligent. I'd be afraid to go up against him."

"Oh yeah, now I remember! I need to borrow Pakkun from you and my team is leaving in a couple of hours—we need to leave before sunrise."

Kakashi blinks a couple of times at Naruto for forgetting such a simple thing and summons the dog.

"Here you go Naruto, is there anything else?"

"Yeah, so are you going to explain to me about these urges?"

"Mmm…no. I have to go get some food." Kakashiquickly leaves--avoiding to answer Naruto.

A few hours later, a breathless Kakashi feels Kurenai's soft curls rest on his chest and her warm hand rest on his stomach. He wraps his arms around her and waits for his breathing to be smooth and calm. His breathing's even but his heart still pounds in excitement.

"Kakashi," Kurenai lifts her head and makes eye contact, "How's your new team?"

Kakashi sighs and thinks for a moment, "You mean Hinata?"

"Well…yeah."

"She's fine. She did great on our first group training. You're worried about Sasuke being on Hinata's team."

Kurenai rests her head on Kakashi's torso.

"Yeah, yeah I'm worried about him doing something…"

"He won't be able to do anything and he knows it. If he does something, the bracelet he's wearing will explode when I form the proper seals."

"Do you think he'll come around? He won't need that thing on his wrist anymore?"

"He'll come around. I believe Naruto when he says that Sasuke's not a bad guy. It's just that he's living his life for his brother." Kakashi strokes Kurenai's arm, "I will protect my team with my life, so you don't have to worry about Hinata."

"I know, but I worry about you too. I-uh-I (clears throat) love you, you know."

Kakashi smiles as he hears this.

"I feel the same way, I love me too."

Kurenai scoffs and repeatedly hits him on the head with a pillow. Kakashi laughs and grabs the pillow from her and pins her on the bed, so that he's on top of her.

"You're the only one who knows how to ruin a nice moment," Kurenai smiles at Kakashi.

"Say it again."

"Say what again?"

Kakashi kisses her gently on the lips before staring into her eyes.

"I love you, Kakashi."

"Good. I love you too you know."

This simple statement causes both of them to grin like fools. Kakashi dips his head and captures her lips with his own as he rouses her and satisfies her rising urges.

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The next day, Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, and Pakkun arrive at the Sand village in order to be briefed for their missions. They are greeted by sand shinobis and are led to a massive recreation hall.

"Feel free to amuse yourselves while a get the Kazekage and the council." The sand shinobi leaves after saying this.

"WOW!" Naruto's voice echoes through the room. "I bet this is where they train! Hey, Neji, bet you can't hit me 50 times."

Neji smirks and assumes his jyuken stance, "I bet I'll hit you 50 times before you hit me."

"Shikamaru, you wanna join?" Naruto looks at their yawning teammate who waves a hand to decline the invitation.

"You're afraid?" A deep voiced canine asks.

Shikamaru glares at the pug and replies, "You can join them if you want, I'm too tired from all the traveling."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At around noon, Kakashi meets his team by the gates. He greets each one of them and explains their mission.

"Well, I practically have the same team except for you Hinata. Being a Hyuuga, I'm going to have high expectations from you."

"Yes sir." Hinata quietly replies.

They head out into the forest and make their way to the Corn field country.

"We have and B-rank mission, which could easily turn to an A-mission and we have to retrieve a scroll from the feudal lord Jirashi. But, there are also other ninjas who are after the scroll so we have to watch our backs until we return to Konoha."

"Why is Jirashi giving the scroll to Konoha?" Sakura asks.

"Well, Jirashi has a debt to the village for an earlier mission. The scroll is worth a fortune; it could buy a whole village with its worth."

Kakashi senses an aura of another ninja as they delve deeper into the forest. He notices Hinata flinch too as she senses the tiny bit of aura. She uses her Byakuugan and finds them 10 feet behind them, hiding in the trees.

"How many are there?" Kakashi urgently asks Hinata.

"There are 2 hiding in the trees."

"Sasuke, draw them out."

Sasuke throws 2 kunais at the trees and the ninjas show themselves. They don a light blue shinobi suits that hide their faces. They form seals with their hands and suddenly a rain of fire needles drops in every direction. Sasuke counters with a huge fireball anddeflects all the needles away. Sakura charges at the 2 ninjas with Kakashi in front. They try to hit their enemies; but are unable to do so when they disappear in a blur. As Kakashi and Sakura turn around they find the enemies in front of them and they jump back to avoid their heated attacks.

Sasuke activates his Sharingan and sees that these ninjas are highly unusual.

"Their chakra is leaking out of their bodies," Sasuke hears Hinata mumble.

The enemy shinobis release a form of chakra from their bodies in the form of fire and shoots them at Sakura and Kakashi. Kakashi covers himself and Sakura in a cage of water and avoid any damages. Sakura lands a punch on one of the enemy and her hand burns as soon as she makes contact. She jumps back beside Kakashi and she heals herself.

"We can't touch them."

Kakashi throws a bunch of shuriken at them, does some hand seals, and yells out, "Suiton shuriken."

The shurikens become covered in a blob of water but they quickly evaporate upon making contact with the enemy.

"Sen'eijashu!" A pair of snakes come out of Sasuke's sleeves and wraps themselves around the necks of each of the enemy. The snakes are slowly being consumed by fire and Sasuke notices the lake that's a couple of yards away but enough to do the jutsu.

"Sensatsu Suisho!" Sasuke forms a couple of seals and suddenly a bunch of ice needles hone in on the enemy. They melt on contact but Sasuke uses his speed to follow the needles and attack the enemies' feet.

Before Sasuke's snakes completely lose their holds on the enemies, Hinata jumps in and performs Hakke Hyaku Nijuhachi Sho simultaneously on the enemies. As their flow of fiery chakra halts, Kakashi jumps in and kills them with his Raikiri.

Sakura heals Hinata's burnt hand and smiles at her, "That was very brave, what you did."

"Thank you."

Kakashi and Sasuke approach them. The jounin takes a look at Hinata's injuries and sees that they're almost healed.

"We'll rest near the lake and start moving again by sunrise."

The two kunoichis nod their head, while Sasuke just sneers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sasuke goes to the lake and washes his hands. He stares at his bracelet—his restraint and unsuccessfully tries to pry it off. On the other side, he witnesses Hinata practicing her jyuken. He scoffs before returning to the campsite where Kakashi and Sakura are sitting around a fire.

"Have you eaten Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asks.

Sasuke doesn't answer. He just picks up one of the fish that's being grilled on the fire and begins to eat it.

"Those shinobis we encountered were odd. We don't know where they come from and their chakra control was really odd. To be able to give it a form and release from all your pores…" Kakashi looks to the lake and sees Hinata approaching them.

She sits beside Sakura who offers her a fish, which she gladly takes.

"How's your hand Hinata?" The jounin asks as he looks at her hand.

"They're perfectly fine, thanks to Sakura-chan."

Sasuke finishes his food and goes to wander off. He finds himself moving towards the moon's direction and enjoys the silence the night offers. A rustle annoys him out of his reverie and glares at the jounin who disturbed his peace.

"You need to let go Sasuke," Kakashi appears beside Sasuke. "This brooding, tough guy act of yours is not going to affect anyone."

"I'm not trying to get to anyone. I want out of here, I want this stupid thing of my wrist, I want to train—"

"To kill Itachi right? Konoha is not holding you back. If that was the case, you have to question why Konoha was stronger than Orochimaru. You call yourself an avenger—an avenger of what? Nothing. You want to take revenge on your brother for killing your family and your clan, but what you're doing—"

"I know what I'm doing!" Sasuke seethes.

"I don't think you do. What you're doing shows that you don't care about your family. You're not honoring them properly-"

"Shut up!"

"Itachi is still your brother, whether you like it or not. He murdered your family. Making yourself stronger for his sake is not honoring your parents or your clan, but shows how much he controls your life. If you really cared about your father and mother, then you would live your life according to your own terms—not for the sake of Itachi. You think you'd find power by going against the village? There are people in the village who are trying their best to help become stronger and you just slap them away with your ignorance and arrogance."

Sasuke turns his back on Kakashi—not wanting to hear anymore.

"Sasuke, if you want to know the meaning of strength, then ask yourself 'why is Naruto stronger than you are?' How did he defeat you?"

Kakashi returns to camp while Sasuke stays where he is. When Sasuke did decide to return, he finds that Sakura and Hinata are still up and talking.

"So…do you like anyone in particular?" Sakura pries.

Hinata blushes as she thinks of Naruto.

"Uh—I think I'll go to sleep." After saying this Hinata retreats to her tent and leaves achuckling Sakura.

"You're such a gossip." Sasuke tells Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun." Sakura was surprised that he was talking to her.

After they reach their destination and easily retrieve the scroll, team 7 makes their way back but take a rest stop at a bath house. Sasuke sits in the warm water with his eyes closed. Kakashi pulls him out of his thoughts as he sits beside him and adjusts his mask.

"It's so nice to wind down and relax isn't it?"

"Whatever." Sasuke retorts.

Kakashi looks around and finds that the men's bath is only occupied by him and Sasuke.

"I'm going to show you something that only you and less than 5 people have seen."

Sasuke faces him and watches as Kakashi removes his mask. All of a sudden, Sasuke sniggers and Kakashi quickly covers his face.

"What's so funny?" Kakashi asks with annoyance.

"It's just that, I was expecting you to have a lip problem or have hideous teeth."

"Why would you think that?"

"Why would you cover your face if it weren't deformed?" Sasuke smirks. "If it's for identity purpose then you would trust your own team to see your face. I'm guessing when you were a genin, your team didn't even see your face."

"You're right, but it's nice to have you say more than one sentence."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"Geez, this is so troublesome." Shikamaru watches as Naruto and Neji spar with each other.

Unlike their match at the chuunin exam, Naruto is more strategic this time and takes advantage of the long range attack. Neji, although his forte is close range combat, is more capable of using genjutsu for long range attacks. He suddenly binds Naruto in chains and prepares to attack him with his Hakke Rokujuyon Shō technique. Sensing that this was all an illusion, Naruto closes his eyesand increases his chakra. When his eyes open it's Neji who is now bound in chains and Naruto punches him in the face.

Naruto grins and says, "That's 50 hits so I win."

"How many times did I hit you?" Neji rubs the spot where he was punched.

"49," Shikamaru responds.

"And you were going to try to hit me with the Hakke Rokujuyon Shō technique?" Naruto smirks.

The great doors open. Temari and Kankouro arrive and wave at their guests.

"Shikamaru, get your lazy ass up and spar with them." Temari sneers.

"What for?"

Temari hits him in the head for his sloth.

Gaara soon arrives and shakes hands with Naruto, Neji, then Shikamaru, and with the exception of Naruto, the two Konoha ninjas look at each other in shock.

"On to business then." Gaara invites them in his office.

In Gaara's office, Kankouro pulls out a map of the village and points to the red dot.

"This was the area that Akatsuki occupied. After the war, 3 of our men were killed nearby this location. We believe that this spot is being occupied again by the Akatsuki. I know it sounds stupid to go back to there but maybe they're expecting us not to notice or suspect that area again. I've led a team to investigate the area but found nothing. Just yesterday 3 more died in this location." Kankouro removes the map as he finishes reporting.

"Since we're short in military support, your Godaime was kind enough to send you three and investigate. Kankouro and I will be accompanying you." Temari tells them of their plan.

"Was genjutsu used to mask their location?" Neji inquires.

"Maybe, but we've tried dispelling it and nothing has worked. We also haven't found any seals but I'm confident that cave is still active." Temari answers.

"Akatsuki is not looking for war and they already have the one tailed demon. We don't know who's in there and what their objective is." Gaara adds.


	12. Chapter 12: Revisited

Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, and Pakkun arrive at the area that the Kazekage's demon was extracted. Neji advised that Temari and Kankouro should stay behind and the Kazekage complied with the request.

"Byakugan!" Neji concentrates as they stand before a huge door. "It's empty."

Naruto and Shikamaru push the doors open and the group enters. Shikamaru cautiously keeps walking forward until Pakkun bites his leg.

"OUCH!" Shikamaru kicks the pug away.

"What are you doing?" Naruto screams at Pakkun.

"Don't take another step." The dog commands.

"You could've just told me to stop you stupid mutt." Shikamaru rubs his leg.

Neji examines the floor that Shikamaru almost stepped on and notices a button that's slightly popped up.

Neji rubs the dirt off the floor and says, "This could be a trap or this could be something else."

"Kage bunshin." Naruto multiplies himself. "Everybody out. My clone should be the one to press that."

Everyone made sure they were outside the door. Naruto's clone presses the button and suddenly the ground rumbles and parts of it start to fall and the entire place collapses.

"What the? They can't just let a poorly placed trap—" Pakkun smells the rubble before him.

"This doesn't make sense," Shikamaru says as he starts picking on tiny pebbles.

Two figures appear out of nowhere. Naruto can easily tell who they are from the sharingan that gazes at him and the massive sword that is held by a shark-like figure.

"Naruto-kun. As expected, you have come. We figured that with the Sand's loss of military and your friendship with the Kazekage, you would be the one assigned to this certain mission. Now, you must come with me and Kisame here or-" Itachi is interrupted by the raging blonde's shurikens.

"It's my demon you want, so it's my terms you follow. First of all, I'm not going anywhere with you two idiots, and second, if you don't like my first proposition, then I'll have to kill you."

"You're not in any position to bargain." Itachi glares with his sharingan to show he's not joking.

Kisame charges towards Naruto's group and swings his sword, Samaheda. The group jump out of the way and Neji charges at the shark-looking nin. Kisame jumps back but suddenly finds himself immobile. Shikamaru smirks as he binds the enemy with his shadow and Neji prepares for the execution.

Itachi stares down at Naruto who returns the look. Naruto watches as Itachi throws 5 shurikens which, multiplies into hundreds. The shurikens miss Naruto as he lifts a barrier from the ground with his doton: shouheki technique. Suddenly, Itachi appears behind Naruto and threatens the blonde by placing the edge of the kunai on his throat. Naruto smirks and with lightning speed performs the Hiraishin no jutsu. Itachi's caught by surprise as Naruto disappears when he throws a kunai. Another kunai heads towards Itachi, which he swiftly avoids but Naruto lands a punch on the face—sending Itachi back a couple of steps.

"Well Naruto-kun. You truly are the 4th's legacy. Not even the sharingan can imitate the Hiraishin. I guess you'd prove difficult than expected." Itachi's sharingan changes from 3 tomos to a triangular shape.

Naruto watches as his surroundings changes into a completely different place. He suddenly finds himself in front of the Konoha villagers, who taunt and mock him. They give him the evil eye and Naruto finds himself weakening and at the same time getting angrier.

"STOP IT!" Naruto releases a massive amount of red chakra and burns through the villagers.

He watches as the red chakra reduces the mob to ashes. After, Naruto finds himself in the Hokage's office—receiving the familiar cold look from his peers. His tears threaten to come out as Sakura and Kakashi glare at him. All of a sudden, Itachi appears in front of him and places his palm on the Kyuubi's seal. Naruto can feel his stomach burn as smoke starts to appear from Itachi's hand. The red chakra starts to pour out, adding to Naruto's pain.

"This is a genjutsu, this is a genjutsu…" Naruto repeats in his head.

Naruto frees himself by kicking Itachi but unexpectedly finds himself in a circle, surrounded by the Uchiha.

"You are in my world Naruto-kun. In this world, I am god. I can control time and space, and kill you here."

"NARUTO!" Shikamaru punches the blonde in the stomach, which frees him from Itachi's hold.

Naruto lands on his knees and Shikamaru catches him to soften the landing.

"Don't look at his eyes. He'll trap you into his world." Naruto chokes out. "He can also perform genjutsu with his finger but it's not as strong as his eyes."

Shikamaru helps Naruto to his feet as Itachi looks on.

"What about Neji?" Naruto weakly asks.

"We're having trouble with fish-guy. He was able to break free from my jutsus but Neji saw that you needed help more than he did."

Itachi attacks Naruto, while a clone attacks Shikamaru from the back. Naruto sees Itachi's kick coming towards him and quickly uses Hekireki kutsuu and covers his arms with electricity. Itachi lands his kick and Naruto grunts as he is sent back crashing to a wall. Naruto sees his enemy twitch slightly from the jolt of electricity. Itachi quickly stands straight but is clearly out of breath from using his Mangekyou sharingan.

"Although this is not the outcome I have predicted, we will finish this battle another time." Itachi body flickers away from the location and Kisame follows.

Naruto drops to the ground, clutches his stomach, and coughs out blood. Neji and Shikamaru grab the blonde as he uncontrollably coughs and continues to clinch his stomach.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakashi arrives at the Hokage's office.

"Kakashi, I need your team to head on to the Sand village and help Asuma's team."

"How about Asuma? Where is he?"

"He's on a separate S-class mission. Besides, it's Sakura's medical skills that is strongly required. Team 9 was sent to help investigate an area in the Sand village. I just received a message from the Kazekage's office. It turns out that it was all a trap by Itachi to lure Naruto. They're becoming impatient about obtaining the Kyuubi. Naruto was greatly injured in his fight against Itachi and I want Sakura to help the medics treat Naruto."

After 2 days, team 7 arrives at the Sand village. Kakashi and Sakura rushes to the Sand's hospital and beelines for Naruto's room. They find him hooked up to machines to monitor his pulse and respiration. At the corner of the room, two medic nins discussing his condition and searching for a way to help the blonde ninja.

One of the medic nins reports to Sakura, "He's been bleeding non-stop. We can't figure out what's wrong with him. Although we were able to find that the source of the bleeding is his stomach. His stomach has unusually high temperature and we're constantly placing cool towels over it."

Sakura heads over to Naruto and examines his stomach. Suddenly, the machine monitoring Naruto monotonously beep in one long tone.


	13. Chapter 13: Raging

_Naruto finds Ryo sitting on the couch, reading, and Naruto plops beside him._

"_Hey, haven't seen you in a while!" Ryo ruffles Naruto's hair._

"_You haven't been around much."_

"_Well, I've been in the Nimbus village a lot."_

"_Yeah."_

"_Anyways, I was rummaging through the old house there and found this."_

_Ryo searches in his jacket pocket and pulls out a paper._

_Naruto takes the paper and sees a photograph of a beautiful long red-haired woman, with the bluest eyes he has ever seen. Standing beside her, with his arms around her waist is Yondaime._

"_I guess you can tell who she is." Ryo puts a hand on Naruto's shoulder._

"_She's beautiful." Naruto traces his finger over the woman's face._

"_Now you can see why your dad married her. Unlucky for you, you got Kiiro's looks and Akaiini's loudness and spontaneity." Naruto scoffs at his uncle's jokes. _

"_I can keep this?" Naruto waves the photograph._

"_Yeah. It's yours anyways."_

Naruto opens his eyes and finds himself on top of the Hokage monument. He hears a noise behind him and his jaws just drop.

"Hello, Naruto."

With his mouth still opened, Naruto can't bring himself to speak.

"I'm guessing you know who I am." The woman implies.

"Y-you're-," Naruto takes out the photograph from his pocket and compares the woman in front him with the picture. "Akaiini. If I'm here, does that mean I'm dead?"

Akaiini chuckles, "No. You're near death but not quite. Besides, you have to become Hokage first right."

Naruto beams as she says this. "Right. So, um, is—is Yondaime-"

"No. He's in a different place."

"Do you ever see him?"

"I can't tell you that Naruto."

Naruto's face drops and releases a sigh. Akaiini cautiously approaches him and places her hand on his shoulder.

"What's going to happen to me now," Naruto locks his eyes with his mother.

"You'll know soon." Akaiini touches his hair and smiles, "You look so much like-"

"I know." Naruto smiles back. "Uncle always said that it was unlucky of me to get his looks and my loudness from you."

"That idiot still makes fun of me?" Akaiini laughs. "Tell me, is he married now?"

"No. But he does have a lot of girls chasing after him."

"How about you? Someone as handsome as you must have a girlfriend."

"I haven't really been thinking about that." Naruto blushes. "How did you meet uh--fath--Yondaime."

"I met him outside of Tanzaku city. He was training or making up a new jutsu--something like that. I took care of him when he collapsed from depleted chakra. Everything just fell into place after that."

The blonde ninja grins at how similar he and his father are. They were both training in the same place and if Naruto had to guess, Yondaime was probably developing the rasengan.

"Naruto…" Akaiini hugs him and catches the blonde by surprise. "You're going to be great Hokage."

Naruto opens his eyes once again and finds himself in a hospital bed. He finds Sakura, Kakashi, Hinata, and 2 medic nins looking at him. The blonde ninja jumps out of bed and runs but Sakura and Hinata hold him down.

"Calm down." Sakura orders.

Naruto's kneesdrops to the ground—his breathing shallow. He finds it difficult to catch his breath and suddenly everything around him goes black.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakashi watches as the medics lay an unconscious Naruto back on the bed. He steps out of the room where he finds Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Neji, Shikamaru, and Pakkun waiting.

"He's fine." Kakashi reports.

"He was caught by Itachi's genjutsu. Then he just started coughing up blood." Shikamaru reminisces.

Kakashi watches as Sasuke arrives and leans against the wall.

"Well, there's nothing I can do for now so I'm off." Pakkun disappears in a puff of smoke.

Temari looks at Naruto's teammates and apologizes, "I'm really sorry. You guys came here to help and this happens."

"It's not your fault. No one expected this to be a trap for Naruto." Neji states.

Later that night, Kakashi and Hinata watch over Naruto as he sleeps.

"You didn't have to do this. You could always come by in the morning." Kakashi tells Hinata.

"I know, but I just wanted to be here." Hinata blushes which, Kakashi notices.

Naruto wakes up and looks around him.

"You're not going to go hysterical again are you?" Kakashi teases.

Naruto remains quiet making an awkward moment.

"What happened?" Kakashi asks while he adjusts his headband.

"I don't know. First I was fighting Itachi, and then I ended up in the hospital, then…" Naruto stops himself.

"Then what?" Kakashi pushes for more information.

"I dunno--maybe it was a dream, but I saw my mother. And, I dunno—" Naruto shakes his head. "I felt really happy being around her. I've never felt that kind of happiness—I don't know how to explain it. But, she was so kind and—when I woke up, the sadness, the loneliness, it felt like crashing down around me."

"I guess you're angry at us for bringing you back." Hinata shyly says.

"No, no that's not it. I'm not mad at anyone. I—I really don't know what's going on."

Kakashi sighs and understands the trouble that Naruto's going through. He's probably going through the same thing when Kakashi lost his dad.

"Get some rest. You'll feel better in the morning."

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"How's the loudmouth?" Sasuke asks Sakura.

Sakura stares out from the Hospital roof and watch as the moon glistens over the village.

"You care about Naruto?" Sakura tries to hide her shock.

"No, just wanted to know how long we have to stay here."

Sakura scoffs and begins to walk away.

"What's wrong with you? Since when did you like the dobe so much?" Sasuke sneers.

The kunoichi glares at Sasuke, who smirks at her.

Sasuke passes by Naruto's room and hears a snippet of the conversation going on inside.

"I saw my mother. And, I dunno-- I felt really happy being around her. I've never felt that kind of happiness—I don't know how to explain it. But, she was so kind and—when I woke up, the sadness, the loneliness, it felt like crashing down around me."

Sasuke continues to keep walking and suddenly is reminded of his family. Although, they weren't perfect, he always felt complete and happy. Then that happiness was taken away by his brother—his own blood family—and suddenly Sasuke his blood ragingly boils by the thought of Itachi.

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Naruto was strong enough to return to Konoha the next day. Kakashi and team 9 stopped by the Hokage's office.

"Akatsuki's becoming impatient. Naruto—" Tsunade is interrupted.

"Tsunade obasaan! I don't want extra security, I don't want you giving me easy missions, and I don't want to be pittied." Naruto impatiently yells.

"That's enough! How dare you speak to a Hokage like that!" Tsunade yells back.

Naruto glares back and then disappears in a flash.

"Damn it! Kakashi, Neji, what the hell happened to him?"

"Just give him some time Hokage sama…" Kakashi suggests.

"We don't have time Kakashi. If Akatsuki get their hands on him—"

"I beg your pardon Tsunade-sama," a vein pops up from Tsunade's forehead as she is interrupted again. "Naruto has shown great strength and high levels of jutsus. Maybe we should treat him as if he could defend himself." Neji advises.

"I agree with Neji. Besides he and Shikamaru are strong enough to protect their teammate." Kakashi concurs.

"Fine! But, they're not getting as much high ranked missions. And I'm gonna have Asuma come to your missions more often."

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After storming out of the Hokage tower, Naruto makes his way through the village. He spots Sasuke by the old training ground and ignores him. Sasuke notices Naruto walking by and punches the log extra hard for the blonde to notice. Out of the blue, Naruto punches Sasuke in the face.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Sasuke his right hand holding his cheek, while his other balls up into a fist.

"What is wrong with you, you greedy bastard! You want everything to be about you. You have to be the one with the most jutsu, the strongest; the best looking…you know what? You're the dumbest!" Naruto storms off and Sasuke follows him.

The Uchiha punches Naruto in the gut twice.

"Shut the hell up! You don't know anything!"

Naruto blocks his other punches and hits him back. Sakura finds them and with her super strength punches the ground to separate the two.

"What's going on here!" Sakura yells.

"I'm out of here." Naruto runs off, not bothering to acknowledge Sakura.

"Hmph!" Sasuke heads off the opposite way.

>

>

A/N: Sorry for not updating as fast as I used to. I'll try to add new chapters at least once a week.


	14. Chapter 14: Change

Naruto sits on his couch watching the television. One hand rests on Howaito's head while the other holds the remote control. He senses someone on the other side of the door but no one is knocking. Opening the door, Naruto finds Hinata on the other side of it. Hinata shyly looks down and blushes.

"Hinata? What are you doing here?" The blonde ninja asks.

"W-Well, I-I just wanted to ask i-if you wanted come to my house for d-dinner." Hinata manages to mutter.

"Me!" Naruto watches as Hinata blushes. "Uh, sure."

At the Hyuga compound, Hinata brings Naruto to the kitchen and prepares the food on the table.

"Where's everyone?" Naruto asks as he looks around.

"My father is out training Hanabi out in the mountains. They'll be back by morning. I-I wanted to talk to you about something Naruto-kun."

Naruto gulps his food and nods at Hinata.

"It's about Sasuke-kun. Please don't be too angry with him. I can see that he's trying hard-"

Naruto stops eating and stares at Hinata. "I see. You're one of his loyal fan girls who think that everything he does is cool."

"No, Naruto-kun, th-that's not it."

"I thought you were different. I thought you weren't like those other girls…"

"I'm not. I swear I'm not." Hinata defends herself.

Naruto stands up and goes to leave. "It's hard to see the flaws of someone you admire. That's why you always defend them."

Hinata unknowingly tells him, "It's always been you who I've admired!" The kunoichi covers her mouth.

The blonde ninja turns around and stares in disbelief. Hinata, knowing that he heard her blurt out her feelings, finally decides to come clean.

"I've always admired you Naruto-kun because you went through hardships just to get where you are today. Sasuke was admired because he's talented and mysterious; I admire you because you inspire others to make themselves better. You work hard and you're flawed because you're human. You may not have been the most talented ninja but I've watched you train harder than anyone."

Naruto smiles at her and says, "Not anyone. Lee's trains while he sleeps."

They both chuckle.

"Have I inspired you to change?"

Hinata nods and replies, "You've inspired me to never give up. Like you, I'm not very talented but, now I believe that I can be on the same level as those with great talent as long as I work on it."

To Hinata's surprise, Naruto kisses her cheek and her knees go weak. Naruto catches her before she drops and grins at her.

"Thank you. It means a lot to that you think so much of me." Naruto helps Hinata to her seat before resuming their dinner.

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The next morning at the village gate…

"Kakashi-sensei, do you think Naruto will be ok?" Sakura asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Will things ever go back to the way they were? Will our team be the way it was?"

Kakashi breathes in deep before replying, "No. We're always growing and changing and things don't usually stay the same. We always hope that they change for the better."

"But, what remains the same?"

"I don't know for certain. But we always want our friends to be the same. I remember back then how you were always chasing after Sasuke and fending off Naruto. You've certainly changed from that."

"I didn't know who Naruto was back then. Now, I constantly worry about him and Sasuke-kun." Sakura sadly states.

"You should be worried." Sakura looks up at Kakashi. "Those ninjas we faced on the last mission were from Akatsuki."

"The ones with the fiery chakra? They're Akatsuki?"

"They weren't members. They were experiments. Akatsuki was able to get a hold of the first four tailed demons. They used the demons' chakra on the nins we fought. I'm guessing that they're testing it on random ninjas before using the chakra themselves."

They're going to go after Naruto soon, aren't they?"

"I don't know." Kakashi sees Sasuke approaching.

"You're here early." Sasuke observes.

"He's always been on time since Kurenai-sensei-"

"Ah look, here comes Hinata." Kakashi interrupts Sakura. "Good, I guess we're ready to go to the hidden cloud village."

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After completing an A-rank mission, Asuma took his team out for barbeque.

"Shikamaru, you really did well. Your wit saved us from that feudal lord's army." Asuma says as he smokes his cigarette. "Also, for tomorrow, you and Neji are to report to the academy. They're short on instructors."

"Hey what about me Asuma-sensei! I can teach too!" Naruto yells with a mouthful.

"The Hokage wants to meet with you tomorrow. She's going to brief us before going to meet with the Raikage."


	15. Chapter 15: Soon

Naruto and Asuma stand before the Raikage. Asuma approaches him, bows, and hands over a scroll containing a message from the Hokage. Naruto observes the Raikage as he reads the message and he can tell right away that there's something that there's really something skeptical about him. His spiky black hair, his cold gray eyes, and the scar on his left cheek made him look like somewhat of a villain. The Raikage looks up and meets Naruto's gaze.

"So, the Hokage refuses to comply with the Lightning country's attack on the Sand village." The Raikage smirks at the blonde as he says this.

"Konoha is an ally of the Sand village, why should we attack it?" Naruto blurts out and receives a shush from Asuma.

"That's a valid question. Well you see, the sand people are not to be trusted. They once had a written agreement with Konoha to be their ally. Then what happens? They attack the Konoha with Orochimaru. Who's to say that they won't do that again?" The Raikage replies.

Naruto balls his hands and tries to hide his annoyance.

Asuma informs the Raikage, "Raikage-sama, it is true that treaties hardly mean anything but the Sand doesn't have enough military power to attack out village."

"But," the Raikage responds, "An army doesn't really reveal their power, even to their allies."

"We will leave it up to the Hokage. But, I can tell you at this moment that she will refuse to join your war against the Sand. If you do attack, we will fight along side of the Sand village." Asuma states.

The Raikage takes a deep breath and moves his cold stare on Naruto. "Very well."

Naruto and Asuma exit the Raikage tower and the blonde ninja releases a frustrated sigh.

"What is up with that jerk?"

Asuma answers, "The Lightning country is probably after the Sand's resources. The Sand village is rich in iron and they make a lot of profit from it. The cloud village hasn't been getting a lot of missions and their economy is dwindling. I heard a rumor that the Raikage has been losing a lot of money. He must be doing something suspicious with it."

"Then why don't the shinobi investigate?"

"He's the leader. It's very hard to question your leader's credibility. There will be people covering up for him and you could be tried for treason if you're not able to prove that he has done something wrong."

"When I'm Hokage, I'm going to fix him straight." Naruto says with a punch in the air.

Asuma laughs as they continue walking.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakashi and his team are surrounded by dead ninjas in light blue garments.

"These guys died from chakra depletion. They're the same ones we fought before." Kakashi explains.

"5 of them are here, so what does that mean?" Sakura asks.

"They were doing something here or they had a base here." Sasuke replies.

"Their chakra points are completely burned and shut down." Hinata observes with her byakuugan.

"What should we do with the bodies?" Sakura questions.

"We'll take one with us and have it examined. We'll destroy the rest." Kakashi orders.

Back in Konoha, team 7 enters the Hokage office and sees Naruto and Asuma reporting to their leader.

"Tsunade-obasaan, that Raikage is no good. The cloud village is-"

"Naruto, I know of the Raikage. He's a jerk, and a creep. He's arrogant and ignorant but that's not to say he's stupid." Tsunade clasps her hands together and thinks.

"Should we warn the Sand?" Asuma asks while fiddling with his unlit cigarette.

"I'll send a message there immediately. We can't do anything about the Raikage but we'll keep an eye on him. Asuma you are dismissed, Naruto you stay behind."

"So, we're going to wait for the Raikage to do something bad rather than prevent him from doing it?" Naruto lashes.

"We can't do anything Naruto. His special team of shinobi is as highly skilled as our ANBU squad. It's difficult to infiltrate his office because he's heavily guarded. He protects himself more than the village itself. But let's drop that for now. Kakashi, what's your report?" The Hokage sighs.

Kakashi moves his eye to the Hokage and replies, "We encountered some more of the Akatsuki's experiments, except this time they're dead from chakra depletion. We took one of the bodies to be examined and they said they'll have the report sent to you by tomorrow night."

"Good. Kakashi stay behind. The rest of you are dismissed." Tsunade commands.

After Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata leave, Tsunade turns to Kakashi and says, "How's the Uchiha?"

"He's cooperating…for now."

"How is he towards his teammates?"

"They're fine for now. The girls talks to Sasuke and he either grunts or mutters something back."

"Mm…Naruto, come with me to the hall. Kakashi, you are dismissed."

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Naruto and Tsunade reach the hall and they find Shizune standing on the side.

"Fight me." Tsunade orders.

"What!" Naruto dodges a monstrous punch but he still felt it graze his ear.

"Why am I fighting you!" Naruto escapes her attacks.

"There's no reason, just do it."

Naruto looks at Shizune, who just smiles at him and watches.

Naruto suddenly finds himself unable to move and sees Tsunade approaching.

"This is an advanced binding technique." Naruto tells himself.

Tsunade proceeds to punch and hits nothing but air.

"What the?" She murmurs.

Naruto comes up from behind and attacks her with a kunai. She dodges his attacks him with her Ranshinsho technique. Naruto falls back and finds it difficult to stand up because his hands and fingers are moving when he's trying to move his feet.

"Ranshinsho technique confuses the electrical signals sent to your body." Tsunade explains.

"Electricity huh?" Naruto thinks. He gathers electric chakra and it spreads through his arms.

Tsunade hits Naruto and he stumbles back. He moves his toes and finds his hand moving. Noticing this, Naruto is able to hit his chest with his electric filled fist. The Hokage watches in confusion as Naruto punched himself. The blonde ninja is now able to move his body without trouble and charges towards Tsunade. As soon as he's a foot away from her, he disappears. Tsunade looks around and tries to get a feel for his location. Tsunade summons two slugs as a wave of kunais and shurikens head her way. The slugs dispose of the weapons by spraying them with acid and melting them. The Hokage turns around and sees Naruto running towards her with a balled up fist. He disappears in a puff of smoke as Tsunade connects a punch. The Godaime suddenly finds a kunai against her neck and her left ankle. Naruto smiles as he hangs from a ceiling and his kage bunshin crouching and prepared to slash Tsunade's leg. Naruto smile turns to shock as Tsunade disappears in a puff. He looks to Shizune and she transforms to the Hokage.

"Well done Naruto." The Hokage claps.

"W-What's going on?" Naruto yells. "Where's nee-chan?"

"Shizune's out on a mission."

"Then why did you fight me?"

"That's because I want you to take over for me when I retire."

"Huh?" Naruto crinkles his face.

"Naruto, you are part of the reason why I'm Hokage. You carry the same dream as the people that I loved."

"Hokage-sama?" Ryo enters.

"Uncle!" Naruto runs up to him and Ryo messes up his hair.

"Long time no see, Naruto."

"Yeah!" Naruto turns to Tsunade then back at Ryo. "Obasaan wants me to take over for her."

"Really?" Ryo smiles at Tsunade, who blushes.

"Well, I don't plan to step down anytime soon. So, Naruto will have to wait a while."

"Hokage-sama, I'm afraid I have to leave." Ryo informs.

"What? I've barely seen you." Naruto sadly states.

"I need to go back to Seishuku…"

"But you'll be back right." Naruto gives him a sad look.

Ryo looks to the Hokage then Naruto while thinking of an answer. "Sure thing…future Hokage."

Naruto laughs as he throws light punches at his uncle.

Ryo turns to face the Godaime and bows, "Tsunade-hime, it has been a pleasure working for you and Konoha."

Tsunade bows back and replies, "The village owes you for your kindness."

"Naruto take care of yourself and Howaito." Ryo states as he places a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Yes sir!"

After Ryo leaves, Tsunade goes to stand beside Naruto.

"You know the advisors were against my decision. They don't know that you're next in line to be Hokage. In order to prevent them from overthrowing my decision, I'm going to speak with some of the jounins and ANBU for support."

"Why me?"

"You have a gift that changes people for the better. The way you fought earlier tells me that you have grown as a fighter. You no longer work on impulse, but with your head and most of all with your heart. Also, I've heard of stories from your teammates how you fight to protect those close to you. I know that with your qualities, you'll be a great Hokage."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama."


	16. Chapter 16: Try

"KAKASHI!" Kakashi and Anko jump to their feet as Tsunade shows up from the hospital room, with Shizune following from behind.

"T-Tsunad-sama?" Kakashi's voice is shaking with fear as the Hokage glares at him.

The Hokage's angry face suddenly changes to a smile and places a hand on Kakashi's shoulder—causing the other jounins to step back.

"Congratulations." Tsunade kindly offers.

"Huh?" The grey-haired jounin replies.

"Tsunade-sama, how is Kurenai doing?" Anko intervenes.

"She's doing fine. She fainted because she was exhausted. Also, Kurenai's about more than a week pregnant."

Anko's jaw drops and turns to look at Kakashi, who seems to be frozen. Tsunade pokes him for a response but he stays exactly the same.

"Anyways, this may be good news to you Hatake; but now I'm short a shinobi and we were already short staffed to begin with." Tsunade leaves and Shizune follows her.

"Are you going to go see her?" Anko asks.

"Yeah. You can come too."

"I'll go later tonight. I think you need to talk to her first."

Kakashi enters the hospital room and finds Kurenai sitting up.

"Hi." Kakashi says as he sits by her side. "So…"

"So…I'm guessing Tsunade-sama told you everything." Kurenai responds.

"Yeah. Did you know about…"

"No, I didn't. If I did I would've told you."

"I know. So, ummm…how're you feeling?"

"Not too bad…"

They try to think of what to say next as they drown in silence.

"You know, this kid's lucky to have us as parents." Kakashi utters as he takes Kurenai's hand in his.

"Why's that?" Kurenai smirks.

"We're both intelligent people and very good looking too. So the odds that this kid is good looking and smart is very very high."

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Sasuke strolls down the village and sees Naruto and Kiba watching their pets compete. Akamaru is no match for Howaito's speed and power and loses quickly.

"You owe me a big bowl of ramen." Naruto states.

Kiba just growls in frustration as Naruto showers praises at his white fox.

"Hmph." Sasuke scoffs as he passes by the two ninjas.

Naruto hears and sees Sasuke and charges at him. As the blonde ninja punches the Uchiha, Kiba jumps in and removes Naruto from Sasuke.

"You better start showing some respect to me you bastard!" Naruto growls.

"Whatever." Sasuke shoves his fist into his pockets.

"He's right Sasuke. Naruto's been named to succeed the Godaime." Kiba offers.

Sasuke's ears perk up as he hears this.

"So, he's reached his goal, while I don't even come close to reaching mine." Sasuke thinks.

"You know what, it doesn't matter what you think. I really am going to be the next Hokage. That means I'm considered to be the top shinobi of this country. I'll have you doing what I say in no time." Naruto walks off with Howaito.

Later that night, Sasuke is disturbed from his training from the screaming and yelling heard far into the village. He follows the sound to the barbeque restaurant. There he sees the most of the jounins and the chuunins his age group. They were all gathered around Kakashi and Kurenai—patting them on the back, hugging her and shaking his hand. Sasuke was so intent on watching what was happening that he doesn't notice Hinata approach him.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke turns around to face the kunoichi. "Would you like to join the party?"

"No," Sasuke sighs. "What's the party for anyways?"

"Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei are expecting a child."

Sasuke walks away but Hinata stops him.

"Come join us Sasuke-kun."

"No." Sasuke sees Naruto through the window. "I don't think I'm welcome."

"Naruto-kun is not the obstacle to your goal. He's not trying to hold you back, nobody is. You're not letting yourself be helped by those who offer it. I'm sorry that you don't feel at home here."

Hinata leaves to rejoin the party and join Naruto. Sasuke approaches the door and stands in front of it. He stands in front of it for a long time before turning around and walking away.

"Running away Sasuke?"

"Kakashi."

"You know, you could join us in there."

Sasuke looks at the people in the restaurant, then at the road that leads to his home. He sighs and follows Kakashi to the party.

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Naruto breaks away from his conversation with Lee when he sees Kakashi return with Sasuke. Kakashi returns to his seat beside Kurenai and Sasuke sits beside him. They hear a ringing noise coming from Gai hitting his glass with a fork.

"Attention please." Gai shows his sparkling teeth as everyone turns to look at him. "This is a beautiful moment." He starts to cry out tears as he shouts, "A BABY! A BEAUTIFUL BABY IS CREATED BY THESE TWO AND IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL THING. AND I FOR ONE KNOW ABOUT BEAUTY." Gai flexes his muscles as he says this.

No one drinks their beverages after Gai's speech so Kakashi stands up.

"We just want to thank everyone for showing up and offering us kind words for the baby. There's still nine months to go but with this much support and enthusiasm being shown already, we can't wait to see how much more of your kindness and love is going to be showered on our child when he or she arrives."

A chorus of "awws" followed Kakashi speech and everyone lifted their drinks to the couple. Naruto sees Sasuke without a cup and slides one his way. Sasuke swiftly catches it and nods at the blonde ninja.


End file.
